by senior contributor Brendan Kownacki
For those celebrants that wanted White House Correspondents’ Weekend to go on-and-on-and-on, the MSNBC after party at the Italian Embassy may have been their best shot…the party had guests on their feet-drinking and dancing- mixing and mingling- well into the 4 AM hour of Sunday morning.
It’s not your typical affair, but much like the rest of the weekend this was a montage of East coast and West coast talent coming together for a common cause.
Rachel Maddow was pouring stiff drinks most of the night at the bar and it got everyone in the dancing mood–especially “Modern Family” star Eric Stonestreet who dazzled on the dance floor late into the night, including some time with the Huntsman sisters Mary Anne and Abby.
How could people not though with The Roots (who are also house band to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) rocking the house. Anchors from the Today Show Willie Geist, Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker were all up ‘past their bedtime’ but I think once a year they can get away with it.
Al Roker
Lots would say the porch outside the party, fashioned into a cigar lounge, was the easiest place to spot interesting pairings of people; it was swarmed with media from all different networks across the TV dial. Sir Ian McKellan spent much of the night chatting with “Glee” star Kevin McHale; ‘N Sync boybander JC Chasez and movie scribe Dustin Lance Black…with Yeardly Smith; voice of Lisa Simpson not far off. Smith pointed out that The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom and that around the show they don’t count 60 Minutes as really outranking them for longest show since it’s not the same type of writing. “Gunsmoke was the last hurdle” she remarked about the previous title holder.
