The competition for stars at the White House Correspondents Dinner is only comparable to the competition to report which stars are attending with what news organization. Here is how the Hollywood site Deadline.com led the pack today. Take Notes….
PREVIOUSLY, TUESDAY PM: Hollywood is again the guest everyone seems to want at their table for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Returning headliner Conan O’Brien is set to take up the court-jester role that Jimmy Kimmel played last year and news organizations have began to reveal guest lists for the April 27 event. There’s a lot of Tinseltown glitter already set alongside generals and top-tier cabinet secretaries — as well as power players like Harvey Weinstein. We know President Obama and the First Lady will be there, and big Obama donor Jeffrey Katzenberg has been invited by the Wall Street Journal, but no word yet whether he will attend. Here’s who else we know is going from Hollywood so far:
Thomson Reuters: The current head of the Canada’s Central Bank and the next Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney will be sitting at Thomson Reuters table as will new SEC chief Mary Jo White, Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Newtown Conn. First Selectwoman Pat Llodra among others. They will be joined by The Bourne Legacy’s Jeremy Renner, Revenge’s Madeline Stowe, Kathleen Turner, SNL’s Fred Armisen, Steve Zahn of HBO’s Treme and the almost next Lord of Downton Abbey. That’s right, the now departed Matthew Crawley himself Dan Stevens will be there.
USA Today: Courtney Cox, Kate Walsh, Kristin Chenoweth and 1600 Penn’s Josh Gad are at the paper’s table. Although she decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky, Olympus Has Fallen’s First Lady Ashley Judd will also attend.
ABC/ABC News: Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara, Eric Stonestreet and other cast members will be back this year. Nashville’s Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton will also be in attendance. And the President of the United States will be at the table — the fictional POTUS Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III, that is, from the DC-based political drama Scandal. Tony Goldwyn will be there with Scandal star Kerry Washington, executive producer Betsy Beers and show creator Shonda Rhimes.
Huffington Post: Jon Bon Jovi will be sitting at this table, joining fellow Jerseyite Gov. Chris Christie, who many think may take a run at the White House in 2016. Scarlett Johansson, who gave a speech with Kerry Washington during last year’s Democratic National Convention, also has a spot.
Newsweek/Daily Beast: He may have missed the inauguration because he was at Sundance, but Weinstein will be here. IAC boss and Newsweek/Daily Beast owner Barry Diller is sitting at his table, as is editor Tina Brown. The Newsroom’s Olivia Munn will be there too. Nicole Kidman is coming, but no word yet if hubby and American Idol judge Keith Urban is attending.
CNN: Elizabeth Banks will be sitting at the cable news network’s table. She’s the only Hollywood type so far, but don’t be surprised if new boss Jeff Zucker tries to stack the seating arrangement with more as well as the likes of Anthony Bourdain from his own network — remember, the man used to run Today.
NBC/NBC News: Matthew Perry plans to break bread with his network brethren.
Bloomberg: If you are going to star in the ultimate DC insider show, then you have to show at the Correspondents Dinner: House Of Cards stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright as well as Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos have spots here.
Time: Last year, Lincoln’s Daniel Day-Lewis came as a guest of the Huffington Post and Steven Spielberg came as a guest of Time. Day-Lewis isn’t coming this year, and it is unclear whether Spielberg will make an encore appearance. But DreamWorks CEO and co-chair Stacey Snider is coming.