Why is Kim Kardashian at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?
WASHINGTON – Once upon a time, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a fairly reserved, clubby affair – the “nerd prom” is how attendees in Washington described it, often with an ironic smirk.
The president would come, of course, and some safe comedian like Jay Leno or Rich Little would entertain. A handful of celebrities might make the trip from Hollywood to the East Coast, maybe an American Idol reject or two, but the star wattage dimmed from there. Mostly, the crowd was made up of working journalists and the D.C. politicians and lobbyists they deal with on a daily basis.
All this has been changing over the past decade. The folks walking the red carpet have become richer and more famous, their entourages larger. Autograph seekers stalk the lobby of the Washington Hilton, leaning over rope lines begging for a photo with Dakota Fanning or Kelly Ripa.
The event now more resembles a West Coast awards ceremony than a celebration of political journalism. Spielberg? Check. Clooney? Check.
For the mostly-anonymous hacks who populate the Washington press corps, the chance to rub shoulders with Hollywood A-listers can provide a welcome relief from the daily drudgery of reporting on the latest markup of budget or cyber-security legislation on Capitol Hill.
But something changed, and not necessarily in a good way, this weekend at the grand old hotel where 2,000 or so reporters and guests gathered for the U.S. capital’s biggest party of the year.
Blame it on Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian. The presence of a drug-addled tabloid queen and a realityshow princess – both invitees of Fox News – gave Saturday’s event a circus sideshow feel that even President Barack Obama couldn’t ignore.
“I have the nuclear codes. What am I doing telling knock-knock jokes to Kim Kardashian,” Obama said in a fake ‘hot-mike’ moment before he took the stage for his speech. “Why is she famous, anyway?”
The better question might have been – why is Kim Kardashian at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? Answer: In their never-ending bid to make a government town seem cool, correspondents’ association members believe it’s better to court guests who appear more frequently on TMZ than in the New York Times.
Lohan was a guest of Fox host Greta Van Susteren and – true to form – got tongues wagging by reportedly missing her first scheduled flight from L.A. to Washington on Saturday morning. We know this, naturally, thanks to TMZ, which was at LAX, chronicling Lohan’s every move.
Once in D.C., Lohan and Kardashian were mobbed by dinner attendees taking smart phone photos in the Hilton’s grand ballroom. Only a few feet away, as the Washington Post noted, the U.S. vice-admiral who planned the mission to kill Osama bin Laden sat unnoticed.
“I ask one question every year & do so again: who are all these people?” tweeted Mark Knoller, the venerable CBS Radio White House correspondent. “Maybe next year, we can spare duplication and have the (White House dinner) with the Golden Globes.”
For journalistic purists, the tawdry way White House correspondents pursue big-name guests diminishes the craft, making a mockery of all that ‘afflict the comfortable’ stuff that’s taught in journalism school. That may be a little harsh. If anything, the Hollywoodification of the correspondents’ dinner simply reflects America’s general obsession with celebrity. What’s the point of being a muckraking network or newspaper correspondent if it can’t score you a dinner date with Eva Longoria or Sofia Vergara?
For the stars, the attraction of coming to the White House dinner must lie in the opportunity it provides to hobnob with the U.S. president without having to pay $25,000 at some over-priced West Coast fundraiser.
Obama didn’t disappoint his audience, taking digs at everyone from Arianna Huffington to Mitt Romney in his keynote speech.
“It’s great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom, or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper,” Obama said.
“Take Mitt Romney, he and I actually have a lot in common,” Obama continued. “We both have degrees from Harvard. I have one, he has two. What a snob.”
The paid talent for the evening was late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who spared neither Obama nor his rivals.
Referring to the Secret Service sex scandal, Kimmel looked to Obama: “I know you won’t be able to laugh at my jokes about the Secret Service. Please cover your ears, if that’s physically possible.”
There were lots of jokes about dogs. Romney took hits from Obama and Kimmel for his now-legendary decision to put his Irish setter, Seamus, on the roof of his car for a road trip to Canada.
Obama poked fun at his past admissions, recently publicized again, that he ate dog as a child growing up in Indonesia.
The line drew laughs throughout the room, except maybe at the Washington Times table. That’s where the celebrity guest was Uggie, the little Jack Russell Terrier from the movie The Artist, was seated.
As if critics needed more evidence the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has gone to the dogs.