Saturday, April 28, marked the 98th annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner where a number of celebrities, journalists and politicians converged to hear a genial but at times comedic speech from President Barack Obama. As previously reported, the dinner drew criticism after news broke that celeb socialites Kim Kardashian and Linsday Lohan would attend after receiving and accepting invitations from FOX News. Furthermore there was buzz that a number of big wig news orgs were upset that smaller publications received invites, leading one media exec to state, “They have to give tables to Bulls—.com.”
Despite all the buzz, “Bulls—.com”, Kim K and Lohan were all in attendance Saturday as well as First Lady Michelle Obama, Rick Santorum, Attorney General Eric Holder, George Clooney, Renee Zellwegger and Newt Gingrich. The president was said to be in high spirits Saturday and opened with a line many thought to be about the historic killing of Osama Bin Laden. “We gather during a historic anniversary,” he said. “Last year at this time, in fact on this very weekend, we finally delivered justice to one of the world’s most notorious individuals.” A picture of Donald Trump then flashed on the screen.
He also used the opportunity to take a crack at Mitt Romney, the Republican who he will more than likely face-off with in this year’s Presidential election. “[Romney] and I actually have a lot in common…We both have degrees from Harvard. I have one, he has two.” After a pause, he added, “What a snob.”
The jokes continued throughout the night not only from The President but from late night host Jimmy Kimmel who touched briefly on The Secret Service’s prostitution scandal. Kimmel jokingly noted that he told the Presidential security team he wouldn’t joke about them for $800, but they “only offered 30” he chided.
Check out a video from last night’s White House Correspondent’s dinner and a gallery of all those in attendance. –danielle canada
