Correspondents’ dinner party scene begins to take shape

Two of the hottest tickets are returning to the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner party scene, but several soirees won’t be making repeat appearances this year.

The Hill will be hosting a major event on the evening of Friday, April 26, with details to be released in the coming days.

And United Talent Agency (UTA) announced Tuesday that it’ll hold its fourth annual correspondents’ party the night before the April 27 dinner. The event, co-hosted by the agency’s co-president Jay Sures and Mediaite CEO Dan Abrams, will be held at Fiola Mare restaurant in Washington.

{mosads}“UTA is thrilled to continue our tradition of bringing together journalists and voices from across the political aisle to celebrate the diversity of opinions that make our democracy stronger,” Sures said in a statement about the plans for the gala.

The company reps a bevy of high-profile journalists and political pundits, including “The View’s” Meghan McCain, “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), actor Terry Crews, CNN’s Dana Bash, Jake Tapper and Don Lemon, CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan and “CBS This Morning” co-anchor Norah O’Donnell, ABC’s David Muir, and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

While The Hill and UTA will once again whoop it up to mark the WHCA dinner, several former fixtures on the social scene say they’re nixing their party plans this time around.

The annual White House Correspondents’ Jam — which featured journalists taking to the stage alongside celebs and musicians to show off their tuneful talents — will not be rocking out this year. The Jam’s longtime host, Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, was poised to be on a nationwide tour with the band the same time as the dinner. The Stones announced last week that the tour would be postponed so frontman Mick Jagger could receive medical treatment.

“We’ll be back with a vengeance for White House Correspondents’ Jam V April, 2020,” an organizer of the Jam tells ITK.

People and Time magazines are also skipping the “Nerd Prom” festivities for the third year in a row. Before the Trump presidency, the publications were known for bringing some of the buzziest entertainers to the nation’s capital for a correspondents’ bash the night before the dinner. But in 2017, as a flood of performers announced they wouldn’t attend the glam event in protest of President Trump, the magazines said they’d be canceling the joint party.

Playboy is also opting to sit out from this year’s dinner-related shindigs. The adult magazine held its inaugural “No Tie After-Party” following last year’s dinner, hosted by its chief creative officer, Cooper Hefner. But ITK confirms the risqué bash is a no-go this year.

Trump — who’s repeatedly dubbed the “fake news media” the “enemy of the people” — bucked tradition in the first year of his presidency by choosing not to attend the correspondents’ dinner. Last year, Trump held a political rally in Michigan the same night as the WHCA gathering, long considered the social event of the season in D.C. 

The White House didn’t respond to an ITK inquiry about whether Trump would attend this year.

The lawmaker and journalist-filled dinner garnered controversy last year after the event’s entertainer, comedian Michelle Wolf, drew widespread condemnation for an explicit set that torched Trump administration officials, with several prominent journalists among those who panned her performance. Wolf delivered a scathing roast of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was sitting onstage during the comic’s remarks, saying “she burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smokey eye.”

In the wake of the Wolf controversy, the WHCA announced last November that instead of tapping a late-night host or comedian for the headliner role as it had done in the past, presidential biographer Ron Chernow would appear at its 2019 dinner. The Alexander Hamilton biographer, WHCA President Olivier Knox said in a statement at the time, will “share his lively, deeply researched perspectives on American politics and history.”