Nerd Prom Day 2..

Nerd Prom Day 2..

Photo credit: Janet Donovan

“I don’t see him actually addressing any serious issues,” prolific journalist Roland Flamini told Hollywood on the Potomac as to whether he expected President Obama to slip in any legacy points in his speech at his last White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner (WHCAD) of his administration coming up on Saturday night. “I think that basically, it will be an expression of relief that it’s all over………he doesn’t have to put up with this stuff anymore. It seems to me that’s been the basis of a lot of what he’s been doing – saying goodbye to the people he didn’t necessarily want to meet in the first place,” he joked.  The occasion of this evening was day #2 of Nerd Prom – “Bytes and Bylines” – at the residence of H.E. Ramón Gil-Casares, The Ambassador of Spain, who hosted the blow-out event along with co-hosts Allen Gannett, Eric Kuhn, John McCarthy and Susanna Quinn.

Rolalnd Flamini

 Roland Flamini (R)

We asked Diane Flamini, the other half of the Flamini team and Social Secretary to The Embassy of Spain to tell us what in the world it felt like putting this together. “Both stressful and interesting because it’s the first time we’ve had anything of this type of younger crowd with DJ and colorful lights. Everything has been organized by John McCarthy and his group. I take my hats off to him. The Ambassador was very doubtful at first, but he is absolutely thrilled and wondered why we haven’t done it before.”

Group Photo

Jack Quinn, Matt Dornic, Janet Donovan, Susanna Quinn, Amb. Gil-Carsaes

Ambassador Gil-Casares agreed: “Yes, I should’ve done it before,  It’s been so much fun. It has been a wonderful evening and I hope to be able to do it for many more years and get an annual thing going: That would be great.”  Although he will be in New York at the time of the dinner, he expects that President Obama will talk about domestic policy. “I’m sure he will speak  about his last four years, his legacy and what he expects for The United States in the 21st Century,”

Nikki

Neil Grace, Nikki Schwab, Spencer Garrett

Actor Spencer Garrett of so many shows, please Google it, had this to say about President Obama: “He’s terrific. He is so funny, he’s such a great performer. You know, I think he has had such a tough, tough couple of years with everybody beating up on him. I hope he just has a great time, a wonderful time with all the eclectic people in the room and I just hope he enjoys himself.” On comedian Larry Wilmore: “He’s a writer, producer and he was one of the writers/producers on The Daily Show and now he has his own show, I think it’s called The Nightly Show or The Early Show but he is terrific. He’s been around a long time. He’s been a kind of behind the scenes writer in Hollywood for a long time and now he’s in front of the camera with his own show. He is very funny, so I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say. I would love to see my friend Micheal Kelly who I worked with on House of Cards, he’s a pal, and I am looking forward to seeing Bryan Cranston and his wife; we did the movie All the Way together about LBJ that’s coming out on HBO in a couple weeks and Jay Roach who directed the movie and his wife. So I am looking forward to seeing them and I always run into a couple of good friends that I know, you know, from New York or Los Angeles and it is always a good time, I love coming to Washington.”

DSC_9826

Florist Ajay Kori, one of the founders of Urban Stems, was understandably more interested in the visuals of the dinner and howThe Washington Hilton would be designing their tables; so we asked him how he would do it: “lots of peonies because they start off small and they grow bigger as the night goes on. They grow into huge, huge flowers; they are just beautiful and majestic and The White House actually does like really great flower arrangements. We poached away one of The White House florists for our company who actually does all the designs.”

Embassy of Spain

Kori was the guest of Susanna Quinn, founder of Veluxe, who thinks the dinner will be another Trump take down. “I think he’s not going to hesitate to take any comedic risks, and you know there’s an article somewhere out there that says that Trump’s burning passion to become President stemmed (no pun intended) comes from Obama’s last WHCAD (where Trump was the butt of jokes). Obama’s a second term President so he can say whatever he wants; and if I can think of one target, it would be Trump.”

Rita Cosby

Rita Cosby

TV and Radio personality Rita Cosby hasn’t been to the dinner for a few years so is happy to be back: “I think Obama’s actually pretty funny. He’s got really good pacing. He’s a pretty good comedian. I think he’s going to let it [rip] because this is his last year so he has a lot of pent-up emotions about the press and about the world. I think he’s going to have fun and I think he’s going to enjoy it and it is going to be one of the best dinners ever. There is so much material this year. Every year it’s so great when you think about it though. I was there when Don Imus spoke, I was there when Craig Ferguson spoke, but think about all the material there is this year between the Republican side and the Democratic side and all the craziness and the races in general that this is a comedian’s dream and I’m so glad to be able to see it.”

Jose Andres

Jose Andres, Rebecca Cooper, Steve Clemons

The late night Champagne crowd always need to be reminded they are on the record!  The trio above bantered about past years.  Rebecca: “So, Janet, you have covered White House Correspondents’ Dinner enough that you are already trying to fast forward the clock. It’s Thursday night, girlfriend, and tomorrow night is Friday night. Obama, if he’s out tomorrow night, will be at the People Magazine party. So it’s 2 nights from now but I think I want to see Bradley Cooper again, just to remind him about the moment that we made out at the last party at (secret party) a couple years ago. He was trying to get into a VIP area, and so the way he was pushing up against me, I felt like he was trying to make out with me,” joked Cooper.  “And so I just want to compare notes and find out whether Bradley also felt like we were making out.”  Steve Clemons: “Aha … well, I’m much more boring, but I had the same experience with Ryan Kwanten, who was trying to get into a VIP area, and he was the hot guy in True Blood, just ‘sayin. Obama is going to say, ‘I’m so sick of all of you, I’m so glad this is the last dinner. I don’t want to be at any more of these and do not call me in the future.'” 

Group Shot

Nikki Schwab, Jackie Kucinich, Betsy Fischer, Rita Cosby

Jose Andres: “But I hope he’s not going to be too hard on Mr. Trump. (Trump & Andres are in a lawsuit since Andres pulled out of the new Trump Hotel for Trump’s disparaging immigrants remark). We’re not talking about Ivanka. She’s a smart, reserved business woman. But, we all should be nicer to each other. We cannot behave badly.” Clemons: “Well, Jose does get credit for trying to teach Donald to love this year, and as a business journalist, I do enjoy interviewing The Donald. He was very excited about you Jose, so I give you a lot of credit for putting the love ahead of the business.” Andres: “The only way to keep moving in this country is moving forward. We cannot be building walls, we need to start building bridges.”

Thoughtfully, we turned off the tape recorder as we saw another round of Champagne coming our way.  You’re welcome!

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