White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

Senator John McCain Headlines Daily Beast Hero Summit

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Tina Brown kicks things off at the second annual Daily Beast Hero Summit with an interivew with the always interesting Senator John McCain. As politicians line up to claim they are outraged by the government shutdown’s affect on veteran services. Syria and the controveries in Congress will all be covered starting at 8:30 a.m. when Senator John McCain joins Tina Brown in a special session.

Afterwards the morning program continues with a look back at the 20th anniversary of the events behind Black Hawk Down with the producer of the 2001 film Jerry Bruckheimer. The day continues featuring speakers from Capitol Hill, the military and the premiere later tonight of Peter Berg‘s “Lone Survivor.”

You can watch the day’s panels live here:

Favreau Joins The Beast of the Northern Wild

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Photo: Haddad Media

So much for Los Angeles for former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau. The recently departed director of communications made his media farewell tour and we had all assumed he set sail for greener pasteurs inspired by (now canceled) 1600 Penn. Instead it seems Favreau figured out there was another Favreau in town and decided to go the traditional route for former presidential speechwriters: a bi-weekly column at The Daily Beast. This comes after the fact that Favreau is yet another former White House staffer looking to open his own specialized communications firm in Washington. But at least he’s following in the time-honored footsteps of the Beltway!

Fishbowl NY has the full memo for News|Beast Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown:
I am thrilled to announce that President Obama’s former director of speechwriting Jon Favreau is joining The Daily Beast as a bi-weekly columnist. It’s wonderful to have his combination of writing talent and sophisticated insight as commentary on the political scene.

Says Jon, “I’m excited to join the talented variety of writers and political observers who contribute to The Daily Beast, and hope I can add a new perspective from time to time based on the experiences I’ve had over the last several years.”

Please join me in welcoming him to The Daily Beast!

Best,
Tina

Women in the World Summit features Hilary Clinton and Sarah Brown

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International Women’s Day finally has a global powerhouse to champion, Tina Brown,  editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek and one of the greatest women’s voices in the United States and around the world.   The Women in the World Summit was launched by Brown and joining with her were Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Sarah Brown, wife of former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and maternal health advocate, Meryl Streep and Diane von Furstenberg.  The gathering included women of all generations talking about issues that rarely make it into the headlines.

Juju Chang led the “Girls Can Change the World” panel with Sarah Brown, Dr. Ida Odinga, wife of Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and Shelly Esque discussing the need for a global education plan for all children, especially girls.  During the panel, Sarah Brown, a global patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, spoke on the recent release of her campaign launched with her husband to reduce the number of child brides. The report shows that 1.5 million girls are married at age 15 or younger every year but “if that girl is in school, she’s not out there married or facing… any of the other things that might come her way,” says Brown.

Dr. Odinga and Brown also talked about their new initiative, Educators Without Borders, which looks “at the 300,000 children who are coming as refugees across the Somalian border into Kenya [and sets up] an early pilot program to create essentially pop-up schooling” for children who will be there for many years.” They are working with government and non-profits to raise the rates of girls education in post-conflict zones. “Some [children] are as old as 13 years and have never seen the inside of a classroom” said Odinga when talking about the young refugees.

Watch the video of the panel below:

The last day of the conference included an exciting keynote by Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton who was surprise-introduced by Oscar winner, Meryl Streep.  Also in attendance were Angelina Jolie, former house speaker Nancy Pelosi, Oprah, Chelsea Clinton, Barbara Bush, Lauren Bush Lauren, Kim Cattrall, Desiree Gruber and many more!

Check out photos from the exciting events below:

Newsweek and Daily Beast Bring the Big Names #WHCD

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The combined forces of Newsweek and Daily Beast strike gold again. Take a look at their invites for the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Actress Anna Paquin, and husband Stephen Moyer (HBO’s True Blood), Colin Powell & wife Alma, Russell Simmons, Meghan McCain, German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, and Rep. Aaron Schock.

This may also be the best dressed group, with designers Michael Kors and Diane von Furstenberg.

President Obama and WHCD host Seth Meyers will have their own cheering section with WH Speechwriter Jon Favreau and fellow SNL funnyman Jason Sudeikis.

Plus Tina Brown, Barry Diller, Jane Harman join NewsBeasters Howie Kurtz, Andrew Sullivan, Lois Romano, Peter Beinart, John Avlon, Lloyd Grove and Kathy O’Hearn.