May 11, 2009

"This is my first ever blog, so I forgive me if I make any 'blogosphere faux pas.'"

No no no, Donatella Versace. We will not forgive you. But we appreciate your humility as you enter our domain. So go ahead, tell us all about the White House Correspondents' Association dinner:
The evening started with drinks at Christopher Hitchens' house.
Just getting started!
Then onto the Newsweek pre-dinner cocktail...
How does one get onto a cocktail? I'm picturing that cartoon character from the Playboy Magazine jokes page...

... and then the actual dinner....

The dinner was a glamorous affair, as it was last year, but this time round there was a very different atmosphere, in ways that seemed to me to symbolize the huge changes that are taking place in this country as a result of the new administration.

The first thing that hit me was that nobody was using their BlackBerrys. This is a pet hate of mine, and last year lots of the guests were glued to their devices. While George Bush did a little comedy — conducting the orchestra and entertaining people with a speech — the audience was just not that attentive. Many people were talking away and those dreaded BlackBerrys were out in full force.

This year, the minute Barack Obama stood up to speak, there was silence....

There was a friendly atmosphere, it was cool, younger, relaxed and glamorous. Glamour was something that seemed to be completely lost before....

The key to this administration's appeal is, I think, that it's so energetic and positive, and (yes, one of my favourite words) glamorous!...
Glamour. Is it wrong to have glamorous leaders that glamorous people find glamorous?
It was a long night but the time flew — it went so go quickly. People genuinely had fun. I've been to so many of this kinds of events where you have people looking at their assistants as if to say, "Can I leave now?" There was none of that.
Hey, I want an assistant, an assistant that can read my eyes when they say "Can I leave now?"!
Everyone was having a good time, and I was amazed by how members of the Obama administration, high-powered people like the Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner, and the Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, were just walking round the room in a really cool and relaxed way. Rahm was carrying his jacket slung over his shoulder. These people look like they know what they are doing.
And, yeah, what are they doing? But they look like they know what they are doing. Per Donatella. With their cool, relaxed walk around the room and their jacket slung over their shoulder. What a relief from Bush!

57 comments:

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

I'm surprised that leather bag she wears as a skin can still keep up with her.

Hoosier Daddy said...

These people look like they know what they are doing. .

Appearances are everything.

Fen said...

Donatella Versace, on her hands and knees, slurping away on Obama at the WH Correspondents dinner. I wonder if she had to fight Chrissy off.

paul a'barge said...

glamour?Glamour?

Palladian said...

Isn't it nice that these people can have so much relaxed fun and be so glamorous while the rest of us are struggling to make ends meet!

Palladian said...

"These people look like they know what they are doing."

That's all that matters! This is about fashion, not competence.

Anonymous said...

You said it, Palladian. Man, oh man!

Fen said...

Wanda: I hope Elizabeth's kidneys fail and she dies!

Obama: Guffaw! Har har!

Donatella: Such glamour!

Wanda: And John needs a good waterboarding!

Obama: Hahaha!

Donatella: So cool and relaxed!

Palladian said...

Democrats used to be the party of the working man, now they're the party of glamor!

I am Barack Obama and I'm happy to be putting the party back in Democratic party.

Keep working, serfs! There's a lot more of this for you to pay for!

SteveR said...

If I said I gave a shit what Donatella thought about anything, that would be giving it too much.

MadisonMan said...

I'm surprised that leather bag she wears as a skin can still keep up with her.

Ouch! But hilarious.

Stay out of the Sun!

Palladian said...

"Ouch! But hilarious.

Stay out of the Sun!"

She's blacker than Barack Obama!

Whenever I see her, I always think of the Butter Shave episode of Seinfeld.

chuckR said...

"Many people were talking away and those dreaded BlackBerrys were out in full force.

This year, the minute Barack Obama stood up to speak, there was silence...."

One doesn't use a Blackberry during worship services.

Palladian said...

So how much do these "celebrity-packed" dinners cost us?

Isn't it great having a White House full of glamorous celebrities once again!

Palladian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

"I'm happy to see Bush go," she says, "I'm very proud of Mrs. Clinton."

TitusTheCabaret said...

I have an assistant. Not a personal assistant but an admin assistant.

TitusTheCabaret said...

Glam is fab.

thank you.

Fen said...

Good lord. What the hell happened to her face? Some sort of birth defect?

I'm Full of Soup said...

Even for a liberal blog, Huffington Post has an extremely un-impressive gaggle of unaccomplished contributors. I bet Arianna has a tough time wrangling them.

TitusTheCabaret said...

Demi Moore looked hot.

She is really beautiful. Her skin is luscious. It looks so soft and silky. I wonder where she got it.

TitusTheCabaret said...

she looks like some blonde muppit I remember watching on the tele when I was a young mo.

There is an awful picture of her in a bikini on the web somewhere.

I am sick of working. I don't want to work anymore. I want to retire and travel and do nothing.

the wolf said...

Oh, I have no doubt they know exactly what they're doing. That's what makes them so scary.

Bissage said...

I keep searching that Playboy cartoon over and over but I just can’t manage to find the two faces looking at each other.

TitusTheCabaret said...

Jennifer Connolly stunning as usual.

I loved her in Requiem For A Dream. Especially the part with her and the other chick and the double headed dildo. Tour de force.

knox said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
knox said...

Is it wrong to have glamorous leaders that glamorous people find glamorous?

How about revealing.

Palladian said...

Glamor:

1720, "magic, enchantment" (especially in phrase to cast the glamour), a variant of Scot. gramarye "magic, enchantment, spell," alt. of Eng. grammar (q.v.) with a medieval sense of "any sort of scholarship, especially occult learning."

Enchantment! Glamor!

Hope!

Palladian said...

Wow. Grammar is glamor.

Is glamor grammatical?

Sprezzatura said...

Glenn Beck descried a different experience this morning on the radio.

For one thing he didn't think Geithner was glamorous, he preferred the to describe him as elfish. In fact, according to Beck the T Sec is even more elfish in person than on the tube.

Trooper York said...

There are a lot of important rules in blogging that I am not aware of and seem to break all the time.

I thought it was just about having fun.

Silly me.

Bad Donatella. Bad.

Palladian said...

"For one thing he didn't think Geithner was glamorous, he preferred the to describe him as elfish. In fact, according to Beck the T Sec is even more elfish in person than on the tube."

That's before Geithner slipped on the One Ring and disappeared.

Wince said...

And, yeah, what are they doing? But they look like they know what they are doing.
Althouse nails it again!It's all working to plan.

They know what they are doing.

They want to look to everyone like they know what they are doing.

But they don't want people to know what they are doing.

This is stock manipulation on a grand scale.

And the idea that a few banks will take away ill gotten gains only reinforces their notion that they, through the government, are entitled to take away even more of the everyone else's money.

And the press is along for the ride.

Robert Cook said...

For those interested, the little woman in the cocktail glass was one of Leroy Neiman's "femlins," so-called, I'm guessing, because they are female--or feminine--gremlins.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

This year, the minute Barack Obama stood up to speak, there was silence.....

What seems "new" to Donatella is not so new to news and info devourers like us.
After Obama’s ascension the press has been largely silent.

Palladian said...

"For those interested, the little woman in the cocktail glass was one of Leroy Neiman's "femlins," so-called, I'm guessing, because they are female--or feminine--gremlins."

You know, I read this and for several minutes thought it said Leonard Nimoy's "femlins" rather than LeRoy Neiman's "femlins" and I kept thinking: which episode of Star Trek: The Original Series did I miss?

Irene said...

"So how much do these 'celebrity-packed' dinners cost us?"

A lot, I suppose, but we should feel better knowing the festivities saved $13,000 by skipping dessert. The money goes to a homeless shelter. Will Michelle be serving Mushroom Risotto again?

Chip Ahoy said...

paul a'barge,

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA breathe HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Oh wait. Mum said never make fun of disadvantaged people. Sorry.

There is a tanning salon in Denver that runs a rough cut-out cartoon advert with a brash low husky female voice that spoofs on Donatella's hard-edged European glamour.

Starts out: "Oh my G-O-O-O-O-O-O-D! You tourists quit offending me with your lily-white skins.

The advertisement itself isn't particularly funny, nor the cartoon very well done, but the thought of a voice artist in a studio goofing on Donatella puts me in stitches every time I hear it. Now, there's a person I'd like to meet at a party.

Hoosier Daddy said...

In fact, according to Beck the T Sec is even more elfish in person than on the tube..

He should consider himself lucky he doesn't have Gollum ears.....

MadisonMan said...

Why would the WHCA dinner cost us money?

The WHCA puts the shindig on. There are probably costs associated with the President being somewhere, out for dinner, but so what? No President can live in a cage.

The WHCA (I mistype that as WCHA as lot, for obvious reasons (Go Badgers!)) has a website, but I can't find the menu for the dinner, or the cost of the dinner, or dues.

goesh said...

pukey

Fen said...

Ah hell. Donatella didn't even write her own blog post. Its was crafted by an asst and she gave it a once over. Typical.

Lawyer Mom said...

Too bad the evening didn't end at Christopher Hitchens' house. We might have heard something interesting, something useful.

Anonymous said...

Titus: Janice the Muppet?Donatella at the beach.Thank you.

AlphaLiberal said...

Ugh. A look inside The Village.

All the beautiful people making merry. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Smilin' Jack said...

The key to this administration's appeal is, I think, that it's so glamorous!...
What a relief from Bush!


Absolutely. The problem with Bush is that you can't have a glamorous administration if the president looks like a chimp. Er...wait a minute....

Jordan said...

If there was anymore fawning in that report there'd be lipstick all over the screen.

John Stodder said...

This story bores me every year, but never more than this year.

"The Comedian said something shocking! It hit too close to home! Somebody is outraged!"

"The president was surprisingly funny! Who knew he could laugh at himself! Wow, what a guy!"

"The media is comprised of a bunch of suck-ups! What are they even doing at this dinner? They should be working!"

"Movie stars came and they're so much more attractive than reporters and politicos! 'Politics is show business for ugly people!' Haahahahahahahaha! What a great line!"

Maybe I've just been on this Earth for too long. I can't stand reading the same shit over and over and reading reactions by reporters fresh off a turnip truck.

Synova said...

A "glamour" is a spell of illusion.

"Using one's willpower to magically alter ones own appearance as seen by others when in close contact. This can include invisibility." (A definition from someplace called Mystic Cauldron.)

I'm such a nerd, that definition is the one that comes first to mind.

And it works for movie stars, too.

Synova said...

Ha! I guess I should read the comments before commenting. ;-)

MadisonMan said...

Not just reporters. Also commentariat members.

The Dude said...

I think her surgeon skimped and used two toilet plungers.

Trooper York said...

When they first put the crusie ship landing in Red Hook there was a lot of talk about people coming to shop in Carroll Gardens and Red Hook while the big liners were docked. The very first ship docked and this Donatella called a car to take her from the dock to the "quaint" Brooklyn neighborhood so she could mingle with the locals. She had heard about the new restaurants and such and how one of them had even got a favorable mention in the Michelin guide. But it was early in the day and really nothing was open. So she decided to go to a local pizza joint to get a slice. She blows in with her entourage and pushes to the front of the line in front of the school kids and workingmen who were waiting to be served. Sal the pizza guy told her who the hell did she think she was and to get to back of the line. A discussion enused. In Italian. A very loud discussion. Which most of the yuppies puppies or the black guys or even the Spanish workers could not follow because it was in very fast and idiomatic (sic) Italian. It was great.

That's why I always get my pizza from Sals.

john said...

"Hitch Ditches Correspondents Bash, Partiers Proceed to Pierre's Place"

So what pre-party did she attend?

If Hitchens did go to the WHCA love/suck-fest, I expct his version of events would be rather amusing.

Trooper York said...

I wasn't there myself but I got the play by play by someone who claimed to be there.

Celebrities suck.

KCFleming said...

No, they blow.

Well, they blow and suck.

hdhouse said...

Oh I miss those good old days of supifying incompetence and minds of mush.....appearances were rare but not everything....secret locations...Cheney walking and snarling, Bush walking and sometimes talking...a dog..yes a dog...a real dog. a canine too.

ahhh for the repose of the dull.