Parties You Will Never Get Into

On its 95th outing, the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was characteristically festooned with stars. This year marks a milestone however, as it welcomes a new, historic administration.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle took center stage at this year’s WHCA dinner May 9 at the Washington Hilton hotel. Politics, movies, music, media, and fashion bonded together that night to make an indistinguishable mélange.

Delivering the night’s most important remarks, Obama managed to tickle the glittery assemblage with light, hilarious quips. Comedienne Wanda Sykes, in comparison, worked up guests with a more politically charged speech.

Politics’ new guard that evening included White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Attorney General Eric Holder, Senior Advisor David Axelrod, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, and White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, among many other government leaders, was also in attendance.

Not everyone was a Democrat. Spotted briefly at the bash was former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Sen. John McCain’s daughter Meghan partied the evening away; so did Antonin Scalia, the conservative Supreme Court Justice.

Entertainers from all alphabets of the list freely mingled among such movers and shakers. The entertainment world’s ambassadors included Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Glenn Close, Natalie Portman, James Franco, Owen Wilson, Mike Myers, Eva Longoria, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick, Jon Bon Jovi, Elizabeth Banks, Kerry Washington, Jon Hamm, Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Denis Leary, Matthew Settle, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Rachel Leigh Cook. Donatella Versace and newfangled designer Jason Wu attended the dinner in behalf of fashion.

Covering the festivity and attracting mileage themselves were media personalities like Katie Couric, Christopher Hitchens, Dee Dee Myers, Steve Kroft, Jim Kelly, Jennet Conant, David Gregory, Ana Marie Cox, Lara Logan, David Brooks, Bianna Golodryga, Chris Matthews, David Carr, Julia Allison, Mort Zuckerman, John King and Dana Bash.

Modern heroes Chesley Sullenberger and Richard Phillips were accorded due esteem with the best of these stars.

Holdovers of the dinner trickled to the opulent mansion of the French ambassador for the after-party sponsored by Vanity Fair and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.