White House Correspondents Insider

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

When Scandal and White House Correspondents' Presidents Collide at The 20th Annual Garden Brunch

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President Fitzgerald Grant (better known as Tony Goldwyn) met White House Correspondents Association President Ed Henry today at The 20th Annual Garden Brunch. The ‘legendary’ meeting that crossed two universes went out earlier through a livestream that culminated (at the 2:37 mark) with remarks from co-hosts honoring the White House Correspondents’ Association, CURE Epilepsy and The Miss America Foundation. Taking place at the historic Beall-Washington House, where else would you expect the perfect blend of Washington media, Hollywood and tech influences like Uber’s Travis Kalanick, Revolution’s Steve Case or even a gold medalist like Gabby Douglas?

Attendees rounded through R Street into the horseshoe to be greeted with CURE iPhone covers and #STEM branded protractors to give a hint at why Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathmatics are being so vetted by the Miss America Foundation to strengthen education for young women. And it’s true, the Garden Brunch is full of “Things Beltway People Like.”

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At the brunch alone you could find Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery posing with “Homeland”‘s Morena Baccarin or Kevin Spacey shaking hands with Navid Negahban and MC Hammer.Then there were the entire cast of Netflix’s “House of Cards” while Gerard Butler of “Olympus Has Fallen” came to lift the spirits of the brunch patrons.

Greta Van Susteren and husband John Coale, whose announcement that she would not attend the WHCA dinner made headlines, was dragged over to the red carpet by Kevin Spacey. For those around it felt like a House of Cards moment when he commanded Greta to “Stand next to me.”

There were even appearences from White House officials like Valerie Jarrett, Gene Sperling, Alan Krueger Tina Tchen (and daughter Emma), FLOTUS chief of staff and her Communications Director Kristina Schake and Reggie Love. House Leader Eric Cantor came to present the CURE Heroes Award to Pat and Patty Horan, an Iraqi war veteran who suffers from seisures. Senator Joe Manchin and Representative Darrell Issa mingled in the crowd with media heavies Joanna Coles, Editor of Cosmopolitian Magazine, David Carr and Jeremy Peters of the New York Times, Chris Hughes of The New Republic, Patty Rockenwagner, from Conde Nast, Alex Korson and Louis Bergholz, of Morning Joe, Toure And during the remarks given by Brunch co-hosts Tammy Haddad and Hilary Rosen, Google’s Eric Schmidt and Internet Investor and Fundamental Physics Prize Founder Yuri Milner happened to be near stage right.

Angel Investor Ron Conway led the giving with a pledge of $5,000 to each of the causes as Mayor Ed Lee and Mayor Villaraigosa talking to Steve Case and other tech leaders including Joe Green who is leading Mark Zuckerberg’s new political efforts in Washington.

Check out some of our photos in the slideshow below:

Miss America Goes Back To Jersey

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After six years, Miss America is returning to her rightful place on the Atlantic City boardwalks.

The Miss America Pagent announced this morning that they’re going back to Jersey and will announce it later today at a live press conference from the historic boardwalks. Annoucned by Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, news of the deal was broken by the AP.

(photo by Bruce Boyajian)

“For decades, the Miss America organization has awarded scholarships to thousands of young women to help further their goals of higher education and achieve their dreams,” said Acting Governor Guadagno. “New Jersey is proud to once again host the Miss America Pageant here in Atlantic City. We are confident that Atlantic City’s famous boardwalk and variety of restaurants, shops and entertainment venues will showcase the city’s vibrancy and attraction to the participants and many visitors that will attend the Miss America Pageant every year.”

“We are so very proud to bring Miss America back to her birthplace in Atlantic City,” said Sam Haskell, III, the Miss America Organization’s chairman of the board. “We are grateful to Governor Christie and his staff for helping make this possible. Throughout the decades, Miss America has evolved into an organization that enables over 12,000 young women to enter and participate in our scholarship program each and every year. Today, Miss America remains an iconic symbol, and our roots have always stayed connected to Atlantic City. Our proud heritage is rich in history, having been named by USA Today as one of the Top Ten pieces of Americana remaining in our great country today.”

“We now look to the future as we prepare for our most exciting television event ever for Miss America with the support of our network partner, ABC,” said Art McMaster, MAO’s president and CEO. “The return to Atlantic City will allow us to showcase our Miss America events in the place where it all began almost 93 years ago.”

“Miss America is as much a part of Atlantic City as the beach and Boardwalk,” said Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson. “It is great to see this event come back home. It could not have happened without the leadership of Acting Governor Kim Guadagno.”

“I cannot think of a better way to reintroduce the country to Atlantic City,” said John Palmieri, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment and Development Authority. “The return of Miss America to Atlantic City is indicative of the tremendous progress CRDA and its partners are making in revitalizing the city.”

Board action by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) and the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority (ACCVA) is expected later this month to finalize the multi-year agreement that brings Miss America back to Atlantic City. The CRDA, ACCVA, and the Atlantic City Alliance (ACA) all played key roles in forging the agreement that will attract even more tourists from around the world to America’s premiere gaming and vacation destination.

Since taking Office, Governor Christie has taken strategic, comprehensive efforts to ensure New Jersey continues to be a leading destination for sports and entertainment events. The Governor’s actions will result in hundreds of millions of dollars in economic growth benefiting businesses – large and small – throughout New Jersey. Additionally, numerous concerts, tournaments and events are making New Jersey a must-stop venue for sports and entertainment.

WHC Insider/Third Way/Huffington Post Inaugural Reception Gallery

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WHC Insider/Third Way/Huffington Post

Why yes, we did co-host an event at the Old Ebbitt Grill yesterday where Huffington Post‘s HuffPostLive and Third Way.

Whether HuffPost was interviewing Miss America Mallory Hagen or the official swearing-in liveblog. Among the invited crowd included Beltway mainstays like Delaware Governor Jack Markell, former Rep. Ellen Tauscher and former MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman. There was also Uber founder Travis Kalanick and “White Collar” actor Matt Bomer. Variety came by to profile how Hollywood and the Beltway have more in common than they’d think:

“Some veteran Washington figures who have been pushing for compromise — even as the town descended into even greater gridlock — saw Obama’s inaugural address as infused with the message that even if post-partisanship fell short, in many ways change didn’t.

‘He knows he can’t force the Republicans to do things, but he is going to try and he is going to use the power of this office, which is considerable, to move them in that direction,’ said Matt Bennett, VP of public affairs and co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic org. ‘But mentioning Stonewall, and mentioning gay equality that explicitly twice in an inaugural address, marks a sea change in American politics where these things went from being the fringes to literally in the center of what an inaugurated president was talking about in his address.”

You can see more of our best and brightest in the slideshow below:

Interview with Mallory Hagen, Miss America 2013

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Mallory Hagen spoke this morning on Fox News with Gretchen Carlson, but she began her interview reign with WHC Insider’s Tammy Haddad last Saturday. Hagen was named Miss America in Las Vegas and we spoke with the Brooklyn, New York resident who tap-danced and talked about toughening gun laws during the 92nd annual Miss America Pageant on the ABC Network.

She began her college education in her birthplace Auburn but moved to New York four years ago to find herself and restarted college. Mallory previously competed in the Miss America Outstanding Teen program three times and the Miss New York competition twice before calling herself “a bit of a bridesmaid until now.” Her stunning white dress that wowed the studio audience cost $400, less than her prom dress. Mallory’s mother, a dance instructor, told the WHC Insider she knew when she was pregnant with her that one day her daughter would be Miss America.