WHCA dinner: Baldwin says may show up as Trump
IT’S MARCH, and there’s still no word on which comedian will headline the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner. Usually the organisation announces its bigname entertainer months ahead of the spring gala, which will be held this year on Apr 29. But this year is a tad unusual.
The silence, of course, has only fanned the fl ames engulfi ng the rumour mill. Alec Baldwin, whose wildly popular impersonation of Trump on “Saturday Night Live” is right up there with former player Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush, unsurprisingly is the crowd favourite. And the actor (and soon to be author) isn’t throwing any water on the whispers.
During a recent sit- down with late night host Jimmy Kimmel, Baldwin said he wasn’t “not lobbying” for the potential gig. Huh?
“It’s interesting how there are people who — now that he’s not going to the White House correspondents’ dinner — there are people who are lobbying to play Trump,” Baldwin said.
“You are not one of those people?” asked Kimmel.
“Well, I wouldn’t say I’m not lobbying,” Baldwin replied, adding that there was a lot of competition on the Internet about who delivers the best Trump. The actor may have been referring to John Di Domenico, who has been doing “The Donald” for more than a decade and reportedly makes US$ 40,000 a month.
But whether Baldwin will bring this particular set of skills to the correspondents’ dinner stage is still up in the air. His not “not lobbying” could mean that he’s reached out. As early as last week, WHCA president Jeff Mason had “no updates” on the headliner but said “stay tuned.”
Kimmel had one good point for the Baldwin column. “It should be whoever the president hates seeing do it the most, and that’s undoubtedly you,” he said. — WP-Bloomberg