Photo & video credit: Janet Donovan
“I would put it this way,” said Marc Adelman at the Sunday brunch hosted by Elena & Robert Allbritton & POLITICO at their Georgetown Manse culminating the WHCA weekend. “The Oscars is a night, New Year’s Eve is one night, the Oscars is one night – The White House Correspondents’ weekend – it goes on for days and it’s fabulous.
And you don’t know where to look because everybody looks smarter and better and better and smarter and it’s just a really fun insurgency of real life and a little bit of Hollywood magic that comes to these things. The highlight for me was falling in love with Eric and Diana Cantor and telling them we should all go on a vacation together.”
Robert & Elena Allbritton
The highlights for Chris Matthews was meeting Jessica Pare who plays Megan on Mad Men and finally meeting Emily Mortimer who works with his son on Elysium. “He was always telling me about her and we got together last night at the French Embassy. Who else, let’s see: Emily Mortimer and Jessica and of course Kevin Spacey, I’ve known him forever. I watched every episode of House of Cards. Rob Reiner did it all in one sitting. Rob Reiner binged. We (with wife Kathleen) usually have a show to watch when we come home from work so usually it was either that or Good Wife, On Demand, or Mad Men.
I wish I had more energy. I went to about five of those parties and I tell you, I was beat. Last night I thought, we left at like 3:00 o’clock or something, time was flying. I just took my son to the airport, and then Gabby’s in Mexico for one of these spa things and I’ve got to get back to working on my book and go to church – then maybe we’re all going to Romania. I don’t think I’m going to go though. I don’t know if I can. It’s a wonderful deal they’re offering. The offer is great except it coincides with my wife’s 60th birthday night.”
Chris Matthews with Robin Wright of House of Cards
“I love when we come here,” said Arianna Huffington. “For me, since I don’t live here, it’s a great opportunity to come and see many friends that I haven’t seen for a long time. Last night was a great time with Governor Chris Christie and Jon Bon Jovi – the Jersey table I call it.”
“Well, the Atlantic pre-party was terrific, and then Tom Quinn and Lynly Boor and Debbie Watkins and a few others and my wife and you know, Mike Gallagher (President and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association) – we decided that we were going to do the alternative White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” said Erik Huey.
We went down to Sete, had a lovely Italian dinner, and then we sponsored the after party at Capitol File. We had our video game lounge set up at Capitol File and it was just a lovely party. Microsoft was with us and the NAB, they co-sponsored. It was just a really nice time. That museum was beautiful and I had just flown back from Nashville like hours before. I gave a keynote yesterday afternoon, hopped on a plane, landed at 6:00 and then threw on a tux, so … It’s a bit of a whirlwind but that’s what this weekend’s all about, yeah.”
Erik Huey, Mike Gallagher and Hilary Rosen
“It was a huge success,” said WHCA President Ed Henry, “We’re really happy and we raised a lot of money for scholarships. The night was fun and funny. The President had a great performance, Conan O’Brien had a great performance, but most important we came together for a lot of young journalists and we were proud to do that.” On the House of Cards video and how he got that started: “It started with a conversation because I like the show personally and it was my sense that a lot of insiders were watching that show so I thought that our audience was their audience, so it was a nice gig.”
Bret Baier, Ed and Shirley Henry
David Axelrod on The House of Cards: “I thought it was funny. It was great, great – very creative.” The highlight of the weekend though was Tammy Haddad’s Garden Brunch. “I have a selfish answer to that,” he said, “because being with Captain Pat Horan, an injured Iraq veteran at the brunch yesterday, a guy who has really struggled with Epilepsy because of his head injuries. It was for me the most moving and impactful part of the weekend. It has been great to see old friends and I enjoy that, but that was really moving for me.” Axelrod’s daughter Lauren suffers from Epilepsy.
“I thought that dinner was fun last night as always,” said Steve Case. “The President was particularly funny and it’s always fun to see so many people coming together – Republicans and Democrats – actually having fun and talking to each other and building relationships which bodes well for getting some things done like immigration and other issues that are important and require some degree of trust.
A lot of this is obviously the glitz and the party aspect which is fine and fun but there’s also the building relationships that is an important part of Washington and a lot of that has been missing the last few decades so having weekends like this where people can come together and get to know each other a little better works.” On the House of Cards, everyone’s favorite, he had this to say: “It was funny, very funny. I thought that Kevin Spacey whom I saw last night did a great job and very well produced. It seems it wasn’t something the White House directly produced, but was his staff putting it together so give credit to them for producing something really funny.”
Politico’s Mike Allen
“I can talk about the “nerd prom,” said Fran Holuba, National Security at The White House. ”It started off with an amazing council on foreign relations dinner. I was so blown away to meet Andrea Mitchell. As for being one of the nerds at the nerd prom this weekend I would say my highlight was meeting Madelaine Albright.
It’s also really nice that we get to celebrate the journalists and correspondents and everything they actually cover, everything that we do; but it’s also a chance for them to really come out and have a chance to see celebrities, feel special and walk the Red Carpet. It’s one of those times in Washington that I think is really special and also for me as a federal agent.
Fran hasn’t seen the House of Cards, but now that she’s met Kevin Spacey, she going to become a Netflix subscriber. “I’ve heard that it’s amazing and it’s nice that they were all here because I know they’re so popular. Everyone has been asking me questions about the show any time I give a White House tour. So they’re like – the House of Cards, oh is that really true, is that really how it is? So it was really fun that the cast was here and added to the nerd prom because people are very curious about what we do.”
Mike Allen and David Gregory
Quotes picked up by Brendan Kownacki:
“You never know who you will see this weekend. I ran into Katy Perry and told her ‘I’m a radio DJ, I play your music about every 17 minutes’ — so she stopped to take a photo” – Tommy McFly
“I was very impressed with the President’s timing and delivery of the jokes. You never know how it’s going to go, but I was very impressed” – Wolfgang Puck “now eat. Eat.”
Wolfgang Puck
“I didn’t do it, I have a witness” – Leon harris as the brunch table crashed down.
Leon Harris
Harris shifts the blame:
“I don’t remember what they did in years past, but the video was awesome” – Griff Jenkins, referring to the House of Cards parody “house of nerds.”
“To me, this is always one of the best parties” – Amb. Michael Collins
“MC hammer at CIA dinner – We figured it out, he’s deep undercover” – Rebecca Cooper on her favorite DC – Hollywood mashup of the weekend.
Patrick Gavin and Tammy Haddad:
Mike Allen on his Go Pro Cam with Eric Kuhn:
Robert Allbritton, Rebecca Cooper and Elena Allbritton:
The Scene:
