State Dinner

While reading the Style article about the celebrity-studded state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron [" Dining with friends ," March 15], I was struck by the idea that the White House should invite an average citizen to each of the dinners. No celebrity should be above other U.S. citizens when it comes to getting an invitation to a White House dinner honoring a foreign dignitary. Who better to be included than one (or two) of us ordinary folks. The choice could be made by lottery, with proof of citizenship (and...

On Monday's lunch menu at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: quinoa salad, cabbage sloppy Joes, baked zucchini fries and, for dessert, a little bubble gum. Big Time Rush — a four-man boy band made famous on the Nickelodeon series of the same name — gave a short-and-sweet performance at the White House on Monday to close out the first-ever kids' "state dinner," a luncheon held for 54 youngsters, ages 8 to 12, who had entered a nationwide recipe contest....

Head table at the state dinner; seated clockwise from President Obama: 1. Barack Obama 2. Michelle Obama 3. Joachim Sauer 4. Robert A. McDonald 5. Deborah Jahn 6. James Taylor 7. Christoph Eschenbach 8. Jane Roberts 9. Antonio M. Perez 10. Eric Schmidt 11. Bryan Lourd 12. Diane McDonald 13. John G. Roberts 14. Jeanette Weaver Ruesch 15. James E. Cartwright 16. Caroline Taylor ...

The infamous royal dance faux pas at a bicentennial state dinner on July 7, 1976, when President Ford and Queen Elizabeth II took to the dance floor, was briefly mentioned, once again, in The Post's June 7 Reliable Source feature, "The White House party brigade. " This famous gaffe has been reported and retold from the initial Associated Press wire story the day after the state dinner to "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. " A simple Web search finds more than 25 referrals to this anecdote that's guaranteed to get a...

The British arrived. Brilliant! For the British, we roll out our most glorious specimen. For the British, we bring out The Clooney. The purpose of a state dinner is always to cement relationships, celebrate ties , create photo-ops. But diplomatic canoodling reaches a treacly pinnacle when the guests in question are our special friends from across the Pond — as they were at Wednesday's White House party. The U.K. was in top form, whispering sweet nothings with clipped consonants.

Another uninvited guest made it into the White House state dinner made famous by gate-crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the Secret Service announced Monday -- exposing more holes in the security perimeter around President Obama. Unlike the Salahis, this newly revealed crasher got into the White House with the official Indian delegation. Many of the key details have not been officially released: the man's name, how he came to be with the group of diplomats and how close he...

A White House state dinner is an affair like no other because the sartorial demands are so precise, the politics both superficial and opaque and the entire display of pomp, circumstance and exclusivity precisely the kind of thing that goes against our national character. Of course, it is irresistible. There's nothing democratic about a state dinner, no way to throw open the doors and turn the guest list into a Facebook free-for-all. (Although one wonders, in this age of...

The Virginia socialites who apparently crashed the White House state dinner last week remained elusive Saturday, as reports surfaced that the aspiring reality-TV stars were trying to sell their story for hundreds of thousands of dollars and CNN said the couple's upcoming appearance on "Larry King Live" had been cancelled. The Associated Press reported that Tareq and Michaele Salahi were offering to talk to broadcast networks about their experience and were looking for a payment in the mid-six...

So, you just left a state dinner! What are you going to do next? For Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the answer was drinks at the Hay-Adams hotel -- where they walked out on the bill, according to sources close to the matter. After the couple departed the White House a little before 9 p.m. the night of Nov. 24, they apparently walked across Lafayette Square to the historic hotel at 16th and H streets and down to the Off the Record bar tucked in the lower level. Unclear what they ordered or how...

Elegant and uber-low-key, the state dinner for German Chancellor Angela Merkel was remarkably unremarkable, without a hint of intrigue or jubilant abandon, devoid of any Hollywood names. No David Hasselhoff, no Heidi Klum, no one who might steal the spotlight from the head table. There, in the Rose Garden in front of the Oval Office, President Obama and Merkel professed their mutual admiration before 208 guests seated at tables draped in white-sequined cloth. Prior to his toast, Obama awarded the...

While reading the Style article about the celebrity-studded state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron [" Dining with friends ," March 15], I was struck by the idea that the White House should invite an average citizen to each of the dinners. No celebrity should be above other U.S. citizens when it comes to getting an invitation to a White House dinner honoring a foreign dignitary. Who better to be included than one (or two) of us ordinary folks. The choice could be made by lottery, with proof of citizenship (and...

A good way to close out a hectic week in Washington: Orchestrate your own arrest. For a good cause, of course. On Friday morning, George Clooney was led away from the Sudanese Embassy wearing a pair of plastic handcuffs, having participated in an act of planned civil disobedience to protest the nation's president, Omar al-Bashir, and his government's blockade of food and humanitarian aid to people in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Backed by a rogues' gallery of do-gooders — including his father, Nick, civil rights scion Martin...

The British arrived. Brilliant! For the British, we roll out our most glorious specimen. For the British, we bring out The Clooney. The purpose of a state dinner is always to cement relationships, celebrate ties , create photo-ops. But diplomatic canoodling reaches a treacly pinnacle when the guests in question are our special friends from across the Pond — as they were at Wednesday's White House party. The U.K. was in top form, whispering sweet nothings with clipped consonants.

On some other official visits , protocol has required Michelle Obama to stand beside some other visiting spouse, with the hostess a full foot taller and a generation younger than her guest. This time, equality is evident. Both the first lady and her British guest, Samantha Cameron, wore long gowns. Obama's was a deep teal, open-necked, floor-length number by British-born Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, who attended with her husband, Harvey Weinstein. And Cameron...

We're about to get new yuks from Kal Penn and John Cho in the stoner-meets-Santa movie "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas," the third installment in the H&K franchise opening Friday. Penn, 34, and Cho, 39, are both adopted Washington VIPs of sorts: Penn went back to acting in July after working stints in the White House Office of Public Engagement. Cho went to the Oct. 13 state dinner for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. During a recent visit to Washington, they chatted about the 3-D medium,...

I was surprised and disappointed about how little hard-news coverage The Post gave to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's state visit to the United States . A picture of him with President Obama should have appeared on your front page. Lee participated in various activities while in Washington, including speaking on Capitol Hill. None of these activities were covered except the state dinner; you seemed to be more focused on style and formal clothing.   South Korea has been a strong ally and...

An e-mail exchange released by lawyers for the Northern Virginia couple who showed up apparently uninvited at last week's state dinner show that a Pentagon official offered some hope she'd at least try to get them into the White House, NBC News reported Tuesday night. But the e-mails, as described by NBC, also point to misunderstandings and crossed signals, with the couple missing messages from the official telling them she couldn't help. In the end, an e-mail from Tareq Salahi suggests he and his wife, Michaele, went to...

We're about to get new yuks from Kal Penn and John Cho in the stoner-meets-Santa movie "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas," the third installment in the H&K franchise opening Friday. Penn, 34, and Cho, 39, are both adopted Washington VIPs of sorts: Penn went back to acting in July after working stints in the White House Office of Public Engagement. Cho went to the Oct. 13 state dinner for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. During a recent visit to Washington, they chatted about the 3-D...

An idea for the next White House renovation: mudroom. In an evening that progressed from muggy drizzle to thunderous downpour, guests attending Thursday's state dinner honoring South Korean President Lee Myung-bak arrived in various states of disarray. But hey — the weather is always a great topic to bond over. "So much for the hair salon," sighed ABC News's Juju Chang as she slogged past reporters. So it was that President Obama and the first lady welcomed Lee and 224 other guests for an evening...

The day started on the White House lawn under umbrellas, with President Obama welcoming South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and first lady Kim Yoon-ok, and beckoning for more coverage from the autumnal drizzle. But the night was all dazzle, as Michelle Obama added to her array of stunner gowns; on this occasion, she went for a purple, one-shouldered number by New York designer Doo-Ri Chung, and thus decided to light up the gloomy weather that enveloped first family's fifth...