Jimmy Kimmel is headlining the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this Saturday, the 98th installment of the venerable event that is traditionally attended by the President and First Lady, as well as many other senior government officials and members of the press corps. Proceeds from the dinner go toward scholarships and awards aimed at supporting aspiring journalists and recognizing excellence in the profession.
Last year’s event was notably headlined by Saturday Night Live‘s Seth Meyers, and also featured President Obama getting in a few tweaks at Donald Trump, who at the time was mulling a presidential run while making a lot of noise about the president’s supposed birth certificate controversy. The president also wasn’t shy at taking a few jabs at himself, including his own poll numbers at the time. We can probably expect a similar mix of self-deprecation and outward prodding this year like that seen in the below video of his presentation last year.
C-SPAN will again be featuring the majority of the coverage, beginning Saturday, April 28, at 6:30pm ET and running until about 11:15pm. C-SPAN’s coverage will include celebrity arrivals, the awards presentations, scholarships and the after-dinner speeches. MSNBC will also kick in with dinner coverage, beginning about 9:30pm ET.
Of course, in addition to the politicians and headliners, it is always interesting to see which special guests the various news organizations invite to their tables for the dinner. It’s usually an interesting group of notable names, running the gamut from Hollywood power players to Washington pundits and current newsmakers (last year, Trump was there as a guest of The Washington Post, for example), and this year appears to be no exception. Politico has put out a list of the notable names that they have heard will be attending this year’s dinner as guests of some news organizations, and here are a few of those names from that list that stood out to us. You can see their complete list here and keep up with it as it is updated.
ABC — Sofia Vergara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Julie Bowen, Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family); Christa Miller and Bill Lawrence (Cougar Town); Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games); actor Paul Rudd; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; President Obama’s senior campaign advisor David Axelrod; National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno
Bloomberg — Actress Zooey Deschanel and model Kate Upton
CBS — Claire Danes (Homeland); Christine Baranski (The Good Wife); Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan; Lt. Gen. George J. Flynn; Raymond Kelly, commissioner of the New York City Police Department; actor Daniel Dae Kim; Sen. Amy Klobuchar; American foreign policy adviser and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice; Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger III; Rep. Allen West; Rep. Tim Scott
Fortune — Actress Rashida Jones
Fox News — Kim Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner
Fox’s Greta Van Susteren — Actress Lindsay Lohan
Huffington Post — Actor Daniel Day-Lewis; actress Dakota Fanning; Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer (True Blood); actor Darren Criss; Nasim Pedrad (Saturday Night Live); Attorney General Eric Holder; Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke; Sen. Rand Paul; White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer
The New Yorker — Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia); actor Jason Schwartzman; actor Aziz Ansari
Politico — Actress Charlize Theron; actress Eva Longoria; Green Bay Packers star Charles Woodson; fashion designer Rachel Zoe; WME CEO Ari Emanuel; former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell; Obama campaign manager Jim Messina; RNC Chairman Reince Priebus; Ivanka Trump; among others
Time — Actor George Clooney and his girlfriend, Stacy Keibler; Defense Secretary Leon Panetta; director Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw
USA Today — Martha Stewart; Kelly Ripa and her husband, Mark Consuelos; actor Johnny Galecki; actress Kelli Garner
