Graydon Carter Julie Louis-Dreyfus - Getty - H 2017
Dimitrios Kambouris/GettyThis year, the awkward coziness of Nerd Prom is too much for some media outlets.
Less than a month after the president met with Conde Nast top editors at their Manhattan headquarters, two of the magazine company’s flagship titles — The New Yorker and Vanity Fair — are dropping White House Correspondents’ Dinner-themed events.
The New Yorker canceled plans to host an event at the W Hotel, located a block from the White House, as it has in previous years, a magazine spokesperson confirmed. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Vanity Fair backed out of its April 29 party.
Vanity Fair‘s editor Graydon Carter told The New York Times in an email that “Trump” was the reason for the withdrawing from a co-sponsored event with Bloomberg LP at the French Ambassador’s residence. A rep for the magazine declined additional comment.
Interestingly, both magazines had recently touted upticks in their subscriptions due, in part, to a “Trump bump” from progressives looking to back titles that have aggressively (and in Vanity Fair‘s case, sarcastically) covered the mogul as he has risen to power.
The star-studded White House Correspondents’ Dinner, held at the Washington Hilton, is annually pilloried for the chumminess exhibited between journalists and the administration it is supposed to be covering. It’s also an annual ritual to spot which celebrities cozy up to which media companies at exclusive tables.
This year, however, there’s been a conspicuous boycott from Hollywood for all Trump events.
The president’s galas and concerts were sparsely attended by notable entertainment industry figures and his inaugural concert made more news for the performers that refused invitations than those who ended up performing. And the president’s executive order targeting Muslim-majority countries only exacerbated the tensions.
On Wednesday, Jeff Mason, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, released a statement confirming that the event was going to be held as scheduled. The journalist wrote: “This year, as we do every year, we will celebrate the First Amendment and the role that an independent press plays in a healthy republic.”
Also interestingly, there’s been no host announced for this year’s event. By this time last year, Larry Wilmore had been unveiled as the selection to emcee President Obama’s final Correspondents’ Dinner.
