It brings A-listers, political reporters, and changemakers together in one space so the White House Correspondents Dinner guest list is always a point of intrigue for celeb spotters. In 2024, the WHCD will be held on Saturday, April 27, with a handful of A-listers in attendance.
The first White House Correspondents’ Dinner took place in 1921. It was originally organized as a gathering between journalists covering the White House and President Warren G. Harding. These days, the event serves as an opportunity for the President of the United States and other political figures to interact with the press in a more relaxed setting. There’s usually a monologue by a comedian (in 2023, it was Roy Wood Jr. of The Daily Show fame) and an often self-deprecating speech from the president.
For the White House Correspondents Association, the event is its main source of revenue to finance all of their work, including support of the journalists working to cover the president, events, and programs to educate the public about the value of the First Amendment and a free press, and scholarships to help the next generation of journalists.
There are festivities throughout the weekend, of course, but the White House Correspondents’ Dinner guest list is what we’re all wanting to know.
Here’s everyone who’ll be making an appearance in DC.
Saturday Night Live‘s Colin Jost is hosting the event, and his wife Scarlett Johanssen will likely join him. “Colin Jost knows how to make Saturday nights funny, and I am thrilled Colin will be live from the nation’s capital as the headline entertainer for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” WHCA President Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News said in a statement.
Star Trek and Princess Diaries 2 star Chris Pine is expected to attend, fresh off his appearance at the Pool Man premiere in which he rocked a linen blazer with tiny jorts. “I think there comes a certain wonderful point in your life,” he explained to E! of his outfit, “where you don’t give as much of a FU anymore, and I think I probably hit that point. This whole film, what I love about what we did is it’s the joy of everything, of design, of clothes, of cinema, of film, of shooting on film, of characters and weird characters.” He added, “So, I tried to throw all the joy I could into it.”
She just won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in The Holdovers, and now Da’Vine Joy Randolph is headed for the White House.
Best known for her role in The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, actor Rachel Brosnahan is on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner guest list. She’s gearing up to take on the role of Louis Lane in the upcoming Superman: Legacy film from James Gunn.
Keri Russell will attend a screening of her Netflix series The Diplomat at the Irish Ambassador’s residence in Kalorama before heading to the big dinner.
Rufus Sewell will join his Diplomat co-star Keri Russell at a screening before he’s also heading to the big dinner.
Mad Men star Jon Hamm will join the White House Correspondents’ guest list and he’s attended several times before.
It makes total sense for The Nanny star Fran Drescher to be on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner guest list because she’s also the SAG-AFTRA president—the leading union organization for actors. She’s had a busy 12 months.
Taking up a good chunk of 2023—from July 14 to November 9—was the actors’ strike, during which Drescher and her organization were in tense negotiations to improve working conditions and job security for actors in the industry.
80s movie icon Molly Ringwald has found a place on the White House Correspondents Dinner guest list. She most recently starred in Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, a Hulu adaptation of the bestselling book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer.
Ringwald’s The Breakfast Club co-star Andrew McCarthy has also scored a spot on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner guest list. He’s been busily working on a documentary called Brats, exploring “the cultural phenomenon of films such as St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club that tapped into teenage angst and connected with young audiences in a way that had never been done before.”
Hiroyuki Sanada has become somewhat of a household name since his dazzling performance in FX’s Shogun as Lord Yoshii Toranaga.
