The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is so embarrassing that it even gets a bad rap on HBO’s “The Newsroom.” Which, in turn, gets a rap bad for being such a bad show. Horribly, ACN anchor Will McAvoy, the anchor played by actor Jeff Daniels, has to eat all past criticisms he had of the WHCD and attend the gala at the Washington Hilton.
“You’ve got to eat it, hope no one remembers,” Sam Waterston‘s character Charlie Skinner, the Cable News Division President, tells Will in the latest episode Sunday night.
Will’s fiancé, MacKenzie Hale (actress Emily Mortimer), the EP of News Night, laments how sad it is that he has to show up after what he said. Which also means she’s going, too. “This is a sad day for dignity…I’ll need a dress,” she said.
Will previously took a firm New York Times-esque stance and declared that he would not attend this year’s “incestuous” and “ingratiating” affair of a dinner.
Lesson learned? Be careful what you say about the WHCD. If you get an invite or your editors or publishers force you to go, tough luck, you’re going.