Last night my wife and I were Time Magazine's guests at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Over 2000 guests filled the Washington Hilton's ballroom, creating a din that made it difficult to hear either President Bush or keynote speaker Craig Ferguson.
Throngs of Hollywood, DC and media celebrities peppered the room. We politely brushed shoulder with Larry King, Charlie Rose, BJ Novack, Heidi Montag, Marcia Cross, Tom Ridge, Wolf Blitzer, and Colin Firth. For the most part, celebs sip and chat just like everyone else. We only had two noteworthy interactions.
While waiting for her car, Martha Stewart ducked into a brick corner to send a text immediately behind where I stood. An autograph hound approached and creepily asked her to sign a baseball. She was perplexed and coolly informed him that she had never played the sport. The signature hunter then got testy, so I gave her a sympathetic look to which she returned a resigned eyeroll.
Shortly after that, we were moved aside by a gargantuan bodyguard with the Jonas Brothers clinging to his back like baby opposums. One of the boys politely said sorry, knowing that old people like me had no clue who they were. I sympathized with them when five feet later a pack of tween she-wolves fell upon them like a hobbled gazelle.
My most enjoyable encounter was with Joe Klein and his lovely wife. Talking with Mr. Klein, famous author of six books, most recently Politics Lost and also Primary Colors as the notorious Anonymous, reminded me how woefully unread I am on politics, Iraq, and the general state of the union. I've added the rss feed to his Time blog Swampland to my daily reader to make amends.
The food was good. The scene momentous. Craig nailed the middle ground between an irrelevant Rich Little and the history making Stephen Colbert. It's worth a look on CSPAN. My best worst moment came early. I was really only there as my wife's guest as guest of Time. Not knowing anyone from anything I accidentally asked the president of Time how he knew everyone. He took it very well and forgave me as arm candy. I like that, oddly enough.