White House Correspondents Insider

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

PR Firm asks Politico's Mike Allen "Are You Media?"

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Politico's Mike Allen recording the program
edit: Yes, in the original we said “Mike Ryan.” It’s because we were reading HuffPost Entertainment.

This seems to be too crazy even for the week leading up to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday. Politico reports that the actual White House Correspondents’ Association overnighted a trademark lawsuit to GBK Productions (which Politico provides here). The source of the lawsuit? A gifting suite that GBK is co-partnering with The Creative Coalition that’s called “GBK & The Creative Coalition White House Correspondence [sic] Weekend Gift Lounge.”

This goes against the trademark of the WHCA and gives visiting celebs the false impression that their dinner hosts would be providing free swag from “the St. Regis Bora Bora, Made by Survivors handmade jewelry, Lovelinks by Aagaard jewelry, EyeWalker Elements Aromatic Botanical Alchemy (a.k.a.., perfume) , Jorg Gray watches ‘and more'” according to today’s Playbook.

To further dig a knife into the wound, when Mike Allen tried to inquire further he was met with the age-old response given to online journos since 2004: “Are you media?” And given the always charming response from another GBK representative: “If you’d like to RSVP, follow the instructions on the email. Any other questions, we have no comment.”

It seems silly that a gifting firm wouldn’t look into possible legal issues if they name themselves after the weekend festivities they’re attending. Even sillier is asking whether or not a company like Politico are press. Maybe Tom Brokaw wasn’t wrong when he took the encroaching celebrity aspect of the dinner to task? Or maybe it’s far too late as our annual fete for journalists–now the worst ranked job of 2013–comes calling.

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.

    • The First Super #Seriously White House Correspondents Dinner Request of 2013

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    Forget the upcoming sequester/spendopocalypse. 2013 is officially the year it’s ok to ask out potential dates to Nerd Prom.

    Daily Inteligencer caught the first awkward advances through Twitter earlier this morning. Buzzfeed was standing on the other side of the Internet, fiddling with their cat-laden Trapper folder filled with notes about 15 things from 15 years ago, rumors about Bobby Jindal and a list of 42 people you won’t believe exist copied on every page of their Trapper Keeper. And then he came in.

    A legendary figure on the sports team. A titan of self-promotion and popularity, able to disappear and reappear without a second thought. Jose Canseco showed up on the Internet. So Buzzfeed–rather their press director–asked the jock out. And in true Buzzfeed fashion it worked (except when it didn’t but it probably did). While Canseco did say he has “always wanted to go to that dinner” he also “bet I could track dick lugar down there. set it up!”

    Canseco went further when Buzzfeed political reporter Andrew Kaczynski stressed the former baseball star should show. “wouldnt [sic] miss it buddy. while there point out some super committee members so I can kick their ass for this damn sequester,”Canseco tweeted.

    Shockingly this marks the first public semi-confirmation for an organization’s guest list to this year’s Correspondents Dinner. While Conan O’Brien was announced yesterday via White House Correspondents Chairman Ed Henry’s Twitter to take another crack at hosting, this marks the first time a media organization reached out so publicly to a potential guest. Even more interesting: does this mean Buzzfeed has a table at this year’s dinner, or just the usual set of tickets a group can purchase? If so, it seems like the cancelation of Reuters TV freed up a ton of space after all.