As usual, Daily Caller and Fox News’ Tucker Carlson avoided The White House Correspondents’ Dinner like the plague. This year he was in New Orleans with Publisher Neil Patel.

What was the pair up to?

According to Daily Caller Senior Online Editor Vince Coglianese, “Yeah. While the rest of DC was consumed with the Correspondents Dinner, these dorks were racing each other on go karts.”

See Patel in his Go-Kart… Read more

Washingtonian Fashion Editor Kate Bennett and ABC7′s Rebecca Cooper Dupin will host an inaugural Washington fundraiser for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund to take place at TABANDEH boutique, which sells jewelry like the piece pictured at right.

The event is May 8th from 6:30 – 8:30PM.

Also hosting will be Mobius Consulting’s CEO Melaine Privitera.

The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is known best for their annual “Super Saturday fundraiser” in the Hamptons hosted by celebrity spokesperson Kelly Ripa.

For its White House Correspondents’ Dinner party, BuzzFeed brought its entire politics team to D.C., but one of its members was noticeably absent from the party.

Andrew Kaczynski, the prolific tweeter and Internet video resurfacer, skipped out. He was at the actual Dinner, the one BuzzFeed had failed to secure a table at. CSPAN brought him as a guest.

“It must be nice, right,” BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith told FishbowlDC that night. “He’s like our celebrity.”

Even without their own version of a celebrity in attendance, the party was packed with hundreds of people, causing long waits at the bar, but even worse: Long lines outside to even get in. Senior Press Director Ashley McCollum manned the mess outside. At one point the general guest line stretched almost 100 people-deep.

For Dorsey Shaw, BuzzFeed‘s resident TV news watcher, it was his first time down from New York since the publication celebrated the launch of it’s Washington bureau in early August last year. He told us he was disappointed that he wouldn’t have time to see the monuments and other sights but that he’d make sure to schedule them in next time he’s in town. (He ended up being able to schedule in some time to see them Sunday, we hear.)

What and who else did we see? Read more

Rules are rules and BuzzFeed‘s Senior Press Director Ashley McCollum isn’t one to mess with on that front. Some TV network employees now know that.

As has been documented, after failing to secure a table at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, BuzzFeed hosted its own highly-attended party Saturday just a couple blocks away at Jack Rose whiskey bar. It seemed that anyone who didn’t make it into the dinner was at the BF party and those who were late were stuck waiting in long lines to get in.

We were told that night that a gaggle of network employees tried jumping ahead of the lines to enter the party but were told by McCollum they’d have to wait. With a slight air of entitlement, they tried talking their way in but McCollum wasn’t having it. She stood firm. After all, the party had reached an uncomfortable level of fullness with party goers nearly on top of one another at the bar, sweating like Newt Gingrich at a Zumba class.

Sensing their defeat, they stormed off.

“When she’s on, she’s on,” McCollum’s colleague Evan McMorris-Santoro, BF‘s White House correspondent, would later tell FishbowlDC. McMorris-Santoro had also tried having some of his friends skip to the front of the line Friday. He told us that McCollum didn’t let that happen either.

E! late night host Chelsea Handler gets the credit for this one. It’s rapper and dancer Psy, who attended this year’s WHCD, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

ABC News Radio White House Correspondent Ann Compton is seen here in Ann Hand jewelry she said she needed to get restrung for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend. She was spotted at the National Journal “Making the News” party Friday night at The Powerhouse bar in Georgetown.

Of course, Compton was seen in the V.I.P. section upstairs.

No offense, but shouldn’t we actually see tangible results of this “creative genius” before RedState‘s Contributing Editor Ben Howe declares your own creative genius? Ben, please report back to us when you’ve found a cure for cancer.

I’ve got my middle of the night creative genius thing going on in my head right now. I wonder how many great ideas I forget when I sleep.

— Ben Howe (@BenHowe) April 30, 2013

This just in from CNN President Jeff Zucker to CNN staff — a feel-good memo in which he cites numbers showing that the network is on the up and up:

April 30, 2013

It’s a new day at CNN…and a busy one as well.

We have just announced that our new morning program will launch on June 10th, and will be called New Day. Hosted by Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan, along with Michaela Pereira, we think the show will live up to its name in a couple of ways. So mark your calendars and start the countdown clock.

In addition, end of month ratings are now in and I wanted to share with you some highlights. For the month of April, CNN posted its best ratings since the November election, and we also topped MSNBC for the first time in more than a year. Year-to-date, CNN is now the #2 cable news network in America. In fact, not only did CNN top MSNBC, but HLN did as well. In addition, CNN digital is having its best month ever, in its history.

We value the fact that our audience comes to us for breaking news coverage and clearly they stayed with us throughout this news cycle. We also saw the successful launch of Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown this month, and that was another big draw for our audience. As we continue to expand our offerings beyond breaking news, we are reminded of how important it is that CNN remains essential.

None of this happens without all of you. Thank you, and congratulations.

JEFF

WaPo‘s Jonathan Capehart, a man who rarely makes an appearance without being in full business attire, loosened up his tie Tuesday. In fact, he didn’t wear one at all, showing off some of his chest.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Capehart joined the show by satellite from Miami. He was on to talk about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who spoke at a tea party rally in his home state and referred to some of his Republican Senate colleagues as “squishes.” Leading the discussion was an op-ed by Capehart’s colleague Jennifer Rubin that said Cruz should quit being “a jerk.”

Capehart remarked, “If there’s bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill it’s that Senator Cruz is a bit of a jerk. Well, maybe not a bit of a jerk. He is a jerk. Democrats don’t like him and Republicans can’t stand him.”

Asked about his tieless appearance by email, Capehart said, “LOL. It was the last morning of my nerd prom-escape vacation.” He added: I usually travel with a spare shirt and tie just in case. This time I thought, ‘Oh, Capehart, let go. Nothing will happen in the short time you’re away.’ So I blame Jason Collins for my state of undress this morning.”

CNN filled the world in on new details about its morning show today. The show will be called “New Day” and, as already announced, it’ll be hosted by Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan with Michaela Pereira.

The program will launch June 10. It’ll broadcast live from CNN in New York City from 6 – 9 a.m.

Jim Murphy is the senior executive producer and Matt Frucci is the executive producer. CNN’s John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin will continue to anchor “Early Start” from 5-6 am ET.

Bolduan most recently… Read more