White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

LALLY-PALOOZA

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As hot as the Bloomberg After-Party is, the pre-party action has always belonged to Lally Graham Weymouth and her Newsweek bash celebrating the WHC dinner.

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder

Every year, she is the eye of the media storm because of her remarkable guest list, specializing in the irresistible from Richard Gere to George Clooney.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Last year’s Lally-palooza was all politics, as top advisers of each campaign gently schmoozed each other from Obama’s Valerie Jarrett, Greg Craig and Joel Benenson, to McCain’s main men Rick Davis, Mark Salter and Karl Rove, to HR Clinton’s Mark Penn and Melanne Verveer.

Who will be seen sipping cocktails at the Newsweek reception this year? Lally, along with co-hosts Donald Graham and newly Pulitzered Jon Meacham, scored Obama heavyweights again: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Here’s the Newsweek list, hot off the press:

R. Todd Bradley, Executive Vice President, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett Packard
David Brennan, CEO, AstraZeneca
Representative Eric and Diana Cantor (R-VA)
Fmr. Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig
Amb. Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner
Amb. Richard Holbrooke, Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Ms. Kati Marton
Attorney General Eric Holder
Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Arianna Huffington, Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post
Jeffrey Kindler, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer, Inc., and Ms. Sharon Sullivan
Michael Kives, Creative Artists Agency
Martin Nesbitt, President and CEO, PRG Parking Management
Natalie Portman
Sir Nigel and Lady Julia Sheinwald, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the US
Puneet Talwar, National Security Council, Iraq and Afghanistan Affairs
Dr. Eric Whitaker, University of Chicago Medical Center
Owen Wilson
James Berkus, United Talent Agency

NBC News Guest List is Celebrity-Heavy

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BFI 52 London Film Festival: Genova - Red Carpet

It’s a big year for NBC, which usually doesn’t field a lot of celebrities for the WHCD. This year the network has made up for it by gathering together some big names — from Colin Firth (pictured, left), Jimmy Fallon and Mariska Hargitay to Mike Myers and William H. Macy. Here is the list:

Jason Bateman, Natasha Bedingfeld, Connie Britton, Warren Buffett, Kyle Chandler, John Cusack, Ari Emanuel, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Colin Firth, Whoopi Goldberg, Mariska Hargitay, Rep. Jane Harmon, Felicity Huffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jim Jones, Sen. Amy Klobucher, Denis Leary, John Lewis, William H. Macy, Cheryl Mills, Mike Myers, B.J. Novak, Gov. Ed Rendell, Wilbur Ross.

NBC top execs Jeff Zucker, Steve Capus and Phil Griffin will attend, along with high-profile talent: Brian Williams, David Gregory, Al Roker, Ann Curry, Natalie Morales, Hoda Kotb, Amy Robach, Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd, Savannah Guthrie, Luke Russert, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz,Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinkski , Norah O’Donnell, David Shuster, Contessa Brewer, Carlos Watson, Tamron Hall, Jim Cramer, Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett.

A-List Journos Back WH Press Corps

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When Wonkette founder and Air America correspondent Ana Marie Cox called for the end of the White House press corps, Washington Monthly chimed in with just get rid of the briefings. Where better to get an opinion on this touchy topic than at The Week magazine’s sixth annual Opinion Awards? A-list journalists from Harry Evans to Mika Brzezinski weighed in on the debate Monday night.

The Zeleny Question: Smart or Silly?

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NY Times WH Correspondent’s Question at Obama Presser Provokes Big Reaction Online

During the president’s televised press conference on Wednesday night, the NYT’s Jeff Zeleny asked Barack Obama what had “surprised, humbled, enchanted, and troubled” him the most about the job, now that he was 100 days into it. Zeleny’s colleagues laughed, perhaps not in a complimentary way, and the online world zeroed in on whether the question was, as one site puts it, “brilliant or BS”?

Three takes from: MediaBistro, Christian Science Monitor and New York Magazine.

New White House Correspondent Chuck Todd Says Ana Marie Cox is Wrong About Getting Rid of White House Correspondents

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NBC WH Correspondent Chuck Todd

NBC WH Correspondent Chuck Todd

Elections usher in more than a new White House resident. It’s a time when the networks tap their new White House correspondent. For NBC, the highly regarded political analyst and editor Chuck Todd now occupies the NBC seat in the White House Briefing Room. While less than a mile away from his old perch at the Watergate as editor in chief of the Hotline, a back room backbencher of much political importance.   WHCInsider talked with Todd about his much more public role.  (He received an expensive old-fashioned shaving kit from a viewer when he won the NBC White House chair).   Todd won’t comment on rumors he will be getting his own interview show on MSNBC, but he proudly shares anecdotes of 5-year-old Margaret and 2-year-old Harrison.

Chuck Todd

Chuck Todd

Q. What surprised you most about being a White House Correspondent?

A. The lack of physical access inside the White House.  The high irony is we connect the two buildings, the White House to the West Wing.  The folks in the white house get to decide where you sit, where you go. It is not new to this White House, it’s a every modern White House that’s controlling.

Q. Compare Obama campaign access vs. The White House?
A. The White House is more open and transparent than the campaign but only because you cannot run the White House in a tight circle of just five people.

Q. How about your transition into this reporter role?
A.  I had a lot of real frustration.  I don’t think Ana Maria Cox got it right about getting rid of the White House Correspondents.  We still have a real value, but you have a lot of the good reporting outside the White House.  It is easier to report from outside the White House. [Read more…]

"The Gibbsnotist"

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White House Correspondents tell WHCInsider.com that Gibbs’ briefing room nickname is “The Gibbsnotist” for his ability to “bring the temperature down” and put some correspondents to sleep.

Watch ABC News WH reporter Jake Tapper and veteran WH reporter, The Examiner’s Julie Mason, on reporting from the front and back rows of the White House briefing room.  Tapper talks about the change in his relationship with Press Secretary Gibbs from the campaign to the very public daily briefings.  Both agree that WHC tweets are not news but a good source of information.  The tweeting birds you hear in the background were not added in post but birds serenading the WH north lawn.

First Lady to Present Journalism Scholarships at White House Correspondents Dinner

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Michelle Obama to hand out scholarships to journalism students at WHCD while Jennifer Loven, WHCA Prez, cuts dessert and gives back money to DC food bank.

This year’s WHC dinner on Saturday, May 9, has a new feature.  First Lady Michelle Obama will personally hand out the annual awards that are funded by the White House Correspondents Association.  By eliminating dessert from the menu, Loven says they will pass on $23,000 in savings to a local charity.  The Washington Post’s The Sleuth, Mary Ann Akers reports.

Will Former NSA-Employee-Turned-Comedian Wanda Sykes Make Torture Jokes at WHCD on May 9?

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The National Security Agency: Material for Comedy?

The National Security Agency: Material for Comedy?

Wanda Sykes, this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner after-dinner entertainer, used to work at America’s top intelligence agency, with access to some of the United States’ most dear secrets. While the WHC Insider cannot confirm she was an actual spy, she has confirmed that she was a National Security Agency employee.

The stand-up comedian known for her in-your-face and sometimes raunchy sense of humor once worked at the super-secret NSA, the signals intelligence operation located in Maryland, just north of Washington. (You know, the one that can listen in on your phone calls without a warrant?) We wonder if Wanda ever took a ride on any of these aircraft in the NSA official photo gallery. [Read more…]

White House Correspondents Dinner Guests – So Far

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As of April 28:

* CNN: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore
* ABC News: David and Susan Axelrod; Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff; Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management and Budget; Valerie Jarrett, senior presidential advisor; Jackie Norris, First Lady’s Chief of Staff; Leon Panetta, CIA Director; Susan Rice, UN Ambassador; Justice Antonin Scalia; Meghan McCain; Jon and Dorothea Bon Jovi; Kate Walsh; Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel
* NY Daily News: Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger
* Fortune: George Lucas and Glenn Close
* People: Sting and Trudie Styler, Miranda Cosgrove, Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker, Jon Hamm, Eva Longoria Parker, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Brooke Shields
* Glamour: Narciso Rodriguez, Alicia Keys, Kenneth Cole, Kerry Washington and White House social secretary Desiree Rogers
* USA Today: Tim Daly, Justin Long, Richard Belzer, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen, Dept. of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Michelle Obama staffer Jocelyn Frye
* Atlantic Magazine:Ed Westick (Gossip Girl), Newt Gingrich *
* Others: Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Anne Hathaway