White House Correspondents Insider

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

White House Correspondents Weekend Parties Start To Roll Out

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Kerry Washington and Hilary Rosen

The annual land-grab for talent and venues has officially, or at least publicly, begun for the 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner Weekend. Yeas and Nays found out that on April 25 that Marie Claire will host their first party in the 99 years of the Correspondents Dinner. Indeed there’s a certain type of magic to be found during the WHCD Weekend. Where else can you find, like last year, Kerry Washington and Hilary Rosenside-by-side on a Grin-and-Grip?

The where, when and how are TBD even by party co-hosts Meredith Fineman and Jessica Hoy. Hoy, however, talks up a few more potential parties at her entry on Examiner–no relation to the Yeas and Nays’ own Washington Examiner–when it comes to break-ups and strange sponsor bedfellows:

  • Time and People will be back at the St. Regis, despite recent news that Time titles into publicly traded companies.
  • The Atlantic ditched Funny or Die for Our Time as a co-partner and chose Jessica Alba and Warren Cash as their co-hosts. Hopefully they’ll be doing it for free since The Atlantic doesn’t have the funds to pay anyone these days.
  • Bloomberg/Vanity Fair, Capitol File, Google, Allbritton and Washingtonian all are going to do something Saturday or Sunday. This news is as shocking as the Metro being broken down or Conan O’Brien being tall.

    And that’s it. Invitations are still secretly being rolled out as Washington media elites struggle to keep their guest wants out of prying eyes. We’ll wait and see what other parties or confirmed info happens to come out now that we’re just about 46 days away from the “nerd prom” that’s become popular with the Outer Beltway folks not used to the magic of the Hinckley Hilton.

    • Media Insider Round-Up: Jobs, Jobs and JOBS

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    It’s been an interesting day so far as jobs continue to be a issue while Rep. Lamar Alexander claims video games are worse than guns despite not ever being proven so! What else is going on that’s worth a read?

  • Bloomberg News confirms that Time is cutting 500 jobs.
  • YouTube is going to bring out premium pay channels ranging from $1-$5:
    “It’s not clear which channels will be part of the first paid-subscription rollout, but it is believed that YouTube will lean on the media companies that have already shown the ability to develop large followings on the video platform, including networks like Machinima, Maker Studios and Fullscreen. YouTube is also looking outside its current roster of partners for candidates.”

  • Washington Post unveils Truth Teller:
    “For the prototype, we focused on the looming debate over tax reform, both because of timing and its import for the country. The tax debate will play out over several months and naturally lends itself to deceit and deception — even moreso than many policy discussions. We hope that our application will help direct the conversation toward the truth as it is happening so that Americans get a fair shot at deciding this critical issue.”

  • Buzzfeed: Al Jazeera America received more than 8,000 job applications for 160 jobs. Don’t be upset if you don’t hear from them until 2014.
  • Ashton Kutcher, star of the new Steve Jobs biopic “jOBS,” got slammed at Sundance. But guess what make-up can do for claiming he looks nothing like the Apple co-founder?
  • Research in Motion is dead! Long live the Blackberry! RWW explains:
    “Heins said that Research In Motion is BlackBerry. All employees are working on BlackBerry and the brand is indentifiable only with BlackBerry. Hence, RIM, a company that has been in existence since the early 1980s, is no more.”

    Need more of an explanation? Buzzfeed points us toward the announcement video for Blackberry’s newest operating, the Blackberry 10:

    It’s cool now for companies to leap off things to promote their product. There was once a time in the District when you couldn’t walk ten feet on Capitol Hill without someone bumping into you due to their “crackberry” problem. IT guys would swear up and down that the iPhone or Apple couldn’t break into the Senate.

    • People and Time Magazines to Launch Dinner Weekend with Friday Night Cocktail Bash

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    As they have before, People and Time will get the White House Correspondents Dinner weekend off to a glass-clinking start with a Friday night cocktail party in downtown D.C. Last year their WHCD-eve party drew a mix of insiders and stars. This year’s is not likely to be much different.