Day 1 Nerd Prom

Day 1 Nerd Prom

Photo credit: Janet Donovan

“You know, I want to meet the Broad City gals on Comedy Central,” The Washington Post’s Reliable Source columnist Emily Heil told Hollywood on the Potomac at an intimate and lavish White House Correspondents Members party for Nerd Prom at the home of Xavier Equihua. “They’re the writers and stars of this comedy series. Anyway, they’re hilarious and they’re going to be in town, so they’re the ones that I’m going to be looking for.”  Okay, so we had to Google it. Broad City is a popular American sitcom about two friends, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, who are New York City residents in their 20s – two Jewish friends to be exact – “who face all sorts of misadventures related to frivolity and carelessness that comes with staying in New York City.”  Look for Emily in the C-SPAN video to be played at the WHCAD dinner on Saturday night.

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Emily Heil being interviewed by C-SPAN

“I think I’m most looking forward to hearing what the President is going to say in his last speech at this dinner of his presidency,” C-SPAN’s Rick Stoddard told us. “It’ll be interesting. We hear he has some surprises in store.”  Yes, we asked what surprises were in store and no, he didn’t tell us. “All of that is still fairly under wraps, but we’re looking forward to seeing it on C-SPAN.”  Ok, so we moved in on C-SPAN’s Steve Scully anticipating we could squeeze the info out of him.

“Well it’s going to be different, but it’s also going to be the same. President Obama loves the Correspondents’ Dinner. He’s gone to all 8 of them. He puts a lot of time in to make sure that he is   perfect and funny. I know from talking to White House officials that he has spent the last couple of weeks thinking about how he wants prepare for the night. I think he’s going to hit a home run as he has in the past,” Scully said while we were working our way to the ‘surprise’ question.

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Steve Scully (2nd right) and the C-SPAN crew

“Does he actually send you the text of what he’s going to say before hand?” we asked. “Yes,” confirmed Scully. “We will get the text top secret, probably late afternoon. The reason why we get it and we don’t release it is so that it’s not going to be on social media.”  We also wondered why they get an embargoed speech and we don’t.  “If you remember 2011 when he made reference to Donald Trump, we want to know who he’s going to refer to in the Ball Room. What we’ll do is read the script, look at the program, look at the table settings, and figure out who’s where and so if he’s going to poke fun or acknowledge or make reference to a certain individual we’ll be able to have that shot ready to go when he does that.”  Just an FYI, Trump wasn’t happy about the poking fun part and left early.  We hear…..he won’t be there this year.

“All I can tell you is that I was there when Bill Clinton had his final dinner. I was there with George W. Bush and it’s always special. Obama has carried on the tradition to of going to all 8 dinners, which I think is kind of nice,” Steve reminisced.  “I think it says a lot about the relationship between the press and the presidency. It’s suppose to be an adversarial relationship, but at the end of the day we can break bread, have a little bit of fun, and poke fun at each other. I think we’ll see a couple of surprises on Saturday night.” Strike two!

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Host Xavier Equihua has been to the dinner several times, but this is the first time that he is going to the private cocktail reception that is hosted by the Board of Directors before the dinner.“Are you anticipating, since you’ve been to it before, anticipating anything to be different because it’s the President’s last term?” “Anytime that it’s a President’s last dinner, or last anything, it’s special. I think, just like the first dinner, this will be very special because it is his last dinner. I’m looking forward to seeing what the White House puts together video wise.”

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The Foxes – swear no pun intended – Wes Barrett, Kimberly Schwandt and Kristin Fisher Forehand

“Well, it’s his last year,” guest Ryan Wegman told us. “The man’s had a lot of energy; he’s taken a lot of risks. I think this is going to be the final year where it’s really the closer of the whole deal. As far as agenda issues that are left, more than anything, protecting healthcare on his way out – however that can be done to prevent any sort of legislator interference after the fact – and then making sure that the next nominee for the democratic party is strongly set up in the best way possible to take over and continue as if it were a third term.”

 

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