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Obama’s First State Dinner Mesmerizes Washington Press Corps

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Obama-mania meets Bollywood spectacle as the Washington press corps is going a little starstruck over Obama’s first State Dinner with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Washington Post and Politico are devoting special sections on their websites to the event and CNN is already on the story.  Several outlets are planning live video coverage of the dinner and receiving line.

In a town where a good celebrity citing is Fed chief Ben Bernanke or ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, things get a little out-of-control for the White House press when they find out A.R. Rahman and Jennifer Hudson are going to be serenading guests. There’s even a “who are you wearing” element to the event, with Pulitzer Prize winning fashion writer-turned Obama family reporter Robin Givhan handing out fashion advice for the evening.

The event cries out for a full-length gown; anything less would seem too informal. A bit of cleavage is fine but a dress that requires double-stick tape should be saved for the Grammys.

In addition to the usual political crowd and Indian officials, early press reports say the dinner’s guest list includes actor-turned-political aide Kal Penn, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta (who almost became Surgeon General), and Washington Post‘s national editor Rajiv Chandrasekaram and his wife Julie Schlosser of Fortune, and WaPo managing editor Raju Narisetti (Note: if you want to score an invite, have roots in the country whose leader is being dined).

The guestlist also includes Hollywood moguls David Geffen, Steven Spielberg, and Jeffrey Katzenberg as well as super-agent (and brother of the chief-of-staff) Ari Emanuel. Representing the networks as guests at the dinner will be CBS’ Katie Couric, NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Robin Roberts.

Reporters are also tweeting away about the event, with ABC’s Jake Tapper encouraging Sen. Claire McCaskill to tweet the event because it would “be ground-breaking and a quite polite shout-out to the twitterverse.” CBS’s Mark Knoller, on the other hand, tweeted “I don’t mind not being invited to tonight’s State Dinner – since it’s meat loaf night at my house.”

Here is CNN’s report:

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  • TfT

    A more accurate headline would just be: Obama mezmerizes the Press.

    Really, still not a single post on the fraud that is global warming?

  • blueblogger

    It is nice to see a family with “class” in the Whitehouse.

  • libra blue

    So Obama is rewarding his Hollyweird friends at taxpayers’ expense. Why aren’t any taxpayers invited to these affairs? It should be manditory that a few average citizens attend these lavish dinners as representatives of the people who are paying for them.

    BTW, Michelle Obama looks like a stuffed sausage in that dress.

  • timzank

    Sounds like the King & Queen of the freaking prom and the student newspaper is all “agog”. Jeez, that’s just embarassing. Hope all the “cool kids” have a good time.

    sheesh…

  • Jim Treacher

    I hope the servers were able to clear Katie Couric’s table before she started dancing on it.

  • Sunnyr

    Frankly, Scarlett……………………………………………….!!!!!

  • TfT

    Mr. Tripplet:

    I’m curious, can you let us know if it is typical for media stars/starlettes to be invited to these State Dinners? I just don’t recall seeing Katie, Charlie (or a sub for Charlie) or Brian on the invite lists for State dinners during the Bush and/or Clinton years. Can you get back to us on that?

  • MichelleF

    Love the title, like BO has to do anything other than sneeze to mesmerize the media. There are so drunk on the Koolide, they can barely walk straight. And Blueblogger, as far as class goes, the Bushes FAR outclass the Obama’s. Maybe you didn’t read about George and Barbara visiting the wounded at Ft. Hood, while BO was mubbling around doing nada, as usual.

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