In Washington, celebrities mixed with journalists and government officials at glittery parties before the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
The early arrivals at a party thrown by the Hollywood powerhouse Creative Artists Agency on Friday night seemed to be weighing the same question: Just how much could they expect to let loose during this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner weekend?
Their game of chicken did not go on long. By 8 p.m., guests at the talent agency’s event, held at La Grande Boucherie in Washington, were applying temporary tattoos to one another’s necks and trying to prevent their drinks from sloshing onto a baby grand piano.
The weekend’s main event, known as “nerd prom,” is a Saturday night banquet at the Washington Hilton Hotel. There, Colin Jost of “Saturday Night Live” plans to gently roast President Biden, who is expected to take the dais and attempt some zingers of his own.
The crowd at La Grande Boucherie. Parties surrounding the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner have made April a high point of the Washington social calendar.Credit…Jason Andrew for The New York Times
Guests included, from left, Kyle MacLachlan, the actor; Caitlin Donahue, a communications and public affairs strategist, with Naomi Biden, the eldest of the president’s grandchildren; Sara Fischer, the senior media reporter at Axios.Credit…Jason Andrew for The New York Times
In addition to the annual dinner, the intertwined media and political classes celebrate themselves at a succession of receptions and parties that have made April a bustling month for the D.C. social set.