“By the People” may be a documentary on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, but the real break-out star of last night’s HBO premiere is Ronnie Cho.

DC media types like Chris Matthews, Candy Crowley and Richard Wolffe, and Team Obama- David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, David Plouffe- all make frequent appearances, but Cho, the former campaign staffer turned admin staffer, was filmed working early morning hours in his boxer shorts. Now that is dedication. He tells FBDC, “I did it for him, I did it for America.”

The film is by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams and produced in part by actors Edward Norton and Tate Donovan, who were both at last night’s DC screening.

“We always hoped to get the opportunity to show it,” Norton said in comments after the film aired. “I look around the room and think this is our government now,” he said to laughter.

It was standing room only at the Park at Fourteenth– the White House’s Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau and Obama’s Iowa political director Mike Blake were there, as well as NYT‘s Jeff Zeleny and Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet, who were all featured in the HBO documentary.

“Shower scene is coming up,” Vietor joked, maybe one too many times. “That line is getting old” was friends’ response.

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NBC’s Betsy Fischer and Athena Jones, MSNBC’s David Shuster, WaPo‘s Jonathan Capehart, Bloomberg’s Julianna Goldman, Time‘s Karen Tumulty, TPM‘s Christina Bellantoni, Monocle’s Sasha Issenberg, ABC’s Sunlen Miller, Tammy Haddad and Richard Wolfe attended. And from the White House: communications director Anita Dunn, her deputy Dan Pfeiffer, deputy press secretary Bill Burton, economic advisor Austan Goolsbee and Obama’s Iowa political director Mike Blake. (h/t Politico‘s Click)

• Helen Thomas and Craig Crawford have teamed up to author “Listen Up, Mr. President.” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, Dan Lothian and Sam Feist and C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman were just some of the friends and colleagues who came out for a book party hosted by Lebanese Ambassador Antoine Chedid and held at the residence. (Photo by Alissa Krinsky for TVNewser.)

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