White House Correspondents’ Dinner: now with more celebrities than ever
Model and actress Kate Upton talks to reporters Friday during a red-carpet event hosted by Google and The Hollywood Reporter on the eve of the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington.
It’s time for the yuck-yucks again between the US government and the people meant to be holding it to account.
Tonight the White House Correspondents Association is holding its annual dinner — which this time is drawing a guest list even more star-studded than usual.
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According to the WHCA, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel will headline tonight’s event. Typically, the event features events in which the sitting president mocks himself.
According to Politico, celebrities at tonight’s dinner include George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, the entire cast of Modern Family, Stevie Wonder, Kate Upton, Zooey Deschanel, Daniel Day-Lewis, Georgetown Law Student Sandra Fluke and Fred Armisen.
Google and The Hollywood Reporter yesterday held a pre-party to which many of the celebrities attending tonight’s dinner were also invited, according to USA Today.
The annual event has come under increasing criticism in recent years as an example of complacency among the Washington Press corps. In 2007, the association defended itself against such attacks, according to Editor & Publisher.
That year, New York Times columnist Frank Rich appeared to suggest The Times would boycott the dinner. In a column, he wrote that the dinner was “a crystallization of the press’s failures in the post-9/11 era: it illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows.”
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Doug Mills of The Times serves on the WHCA board, according to its website.