The White House Correspondents' Dinner Guest List: Who Got Babs?

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Nerd Prom is almost upon us (only two more days!), and in the celebrity Hunger Games waged by news organizations far and wide (or at least around the Beltway), one news organization has landed the Katniss Everdeen of the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Yes, someone's taking Streisand. For a while there, NPR was sitting pretty, having snagged the Nerd Prom king in waiting, George Lucas, and one-upping Time's Hollywood power table. And then everything changed. 

From District 1 came New York City Michael Bloomberg, or at least his eponymous news organization. Diminutive and very rich, like most citizens from District 1, Bloomberg brought in his tribute: Barbra Streisand. "She's back! After a long absence, Barbra Streisand will be returning as a celebrity guest to the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday," The Washington Post's Reliable Source reported, explaining the gravitas of the invite of this most gravity-free of liberal powerhouse guests. The Post added that "[t]he avid Bill Clinton fundraiser caused a sensation when she attended in 1993, back when Hollywood folks were still a novelty at a dinner dominated by official Beltway types and the occasional scandal figure thrown in for flavor."

Upon receiving word that Babs would be back, and across the room at the White House, somewhere Arianna Huffington looked at her list, and on it the sullied name of Reese Witherspoon, which an intern had bolded, underlined, circled, and flecked with a question mark. She brought the parchment close to her heart, clutched it, shut her mascara-lined eyes and whispered, "You're my only hope." Here's our updated, interactive seating chart — explore by clicking the arrows below (left-leaning politicians are in blue, right leaning in red, celebrities in black, PR people in pink, and media executives in green), but note that table configurations and exact table settings are guesstimates; outlet-celeb pairings are most certainly not....

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.