If there were any doubts that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has gone Hollywood, one need look no further than President Barack Obama’s address to the Capitol Hill journalists. Within a few short minutes, the President had managed to mention Jimmy Fallon, Jay-Z, NBC, the History Channel, Michael Douglas, Taylor Swift, Oprah, Groucho Marx, Aaron Sorkin, Daniel Day-Lewis, Steven Spielberg and Conan O’Brien (the host of the evening). Plus, the President made a cameo appearance in a Spielberg spoof video about his next movie, called Obama, staring Day-Lewis as president.
Some of Obama’s other Hollywood references:
On the controversy surrounding Jay-Z and Beyonce going to Cuba. “I’ve got 99 problems and now Jay-Z is one.”
PHOTOS: White House Correspondents’ Dinner: Hollywood Descends Upon D.C
Regarding a recent game of basketball: “I took 22 shots, made two of them. That’s right. Two hits, 20 misses. Execs at NBC asked, ‘What’s your secret?'”
On Sheldon Adelson spending $100 million on negative ads against him: “That’s Oprah money.”
On O’Brien hosting the dinner: “I understand that when the Correspondents’ Association was considering Conan for this gig, they were faced with that age-old dilemma: Do you offer it to him now, or wait for five years and then give it to Jimmy Fallon?”
On Maureen Dowd’s suggestion that Obama should act more like Michael Douglas in The American President: “I know Michael is here tonight,” Obama said. “Michael, what’s your secret man? Could it be that you were an actor in an Aaron Sorkin liberal fantasy?”
Regarding suggestions that the actor playing the devil in The Bible miniseries on the History Channel looks like Obama: “The History Channel is not here. I guess they were embarrassed about the whole Obama-is-a-devil thing. Of course, that never kept Fox News from showing up. They actually thought the comparison was not fair — to Satan.”
On Groucho Marx: “Groucho Marx once told an audience ‘Before I speak, I have something important to say.'” Obama added: “Senator Cruz, that’s Groucho Marx, not Karl Marx.”
On the his “charm offensive” and the sequester: “My charm offensive has helped me learn some interesting things about what’s going on in Congress — it turns out, absolutely nothing. But the point of my charm offensive is simple: We need to make progress on some important issues. Take the sequester. Republicans fell in love with this thing, and now they can’t stop talking about how much they hate it. It’s like we’re trapped in a Taylor Swift album.”
