Lifestyle
White House Correspondents’ Dinner Parties Go on Without Trump or Big Celebrities
For those taking part in the Washington social whirl leading up to the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, it is helpful to know a few basic facts: There will be ample canapés and cocktails, and the occasional broken glass, at the parties before the big night; there will be plenty of television anchors, reporters and talking heads holding forth on current events; and, inevitably, you will run into Bill Nye, the science guy.
Mr. Nye, a Georgetown resident and affable advocate for all things scientific, was a fixture at the festivities in advance of Saturday’s dinner, which has been buffeted by a series of norm-breaking changes.
First came the unsurprising news that the Trump administration, including the president himself, had no intention of participating in the event. Then an appearance by the scheduled host, the comedian Amber Ruffin, was canceled after the association said it wanted to focus not on “the politics of division,” but on celebrating journalism — which is nice, but sounds like a lot less laughs.
But something funny happened on the way to the dinner being a bore: Not only did the parties continue in Washington, but they proliferated into a morning-to-midnight array of breakfasts, brunches and boozy bashes.
Tammy Haddad, a media consultant who helped host two events, noted there were more parties this year, adding that “politics have taken over media” as new outlets have gained on more established publications.
“There’s all these opportunities for regular people, people that have a political opinion, to elevate themselves,” Ms. Haddad said. “So that’s why they’re here.”
Actual celebrities were hard to find, a marked change from last year, when Colin Jost, of “Saturday Night Live,” headlined the dinner and took part in the festivities with his wife, Scarlett Johansson. The closest brush with stop-in-the-street fame came on Friday, when Jason Isaacs, a cast member of “The White Lotus,” arrived at a party hosted by United Talent Agency.
Mr. Isaacs said he was in Washington as part of a group of actors lobbying for the continued funding of the National Endowment for the Arts. “No one quite knows what their fate is going to be,” he said.
It was a line that might have applied to “The White Lotus” — or the Washington press corps, which has been at odds with the White House during President Trump’s first hundred days in office.
Bill de Blasio, the former mayor of New York City, struck a hopeful note for his fellow Democrats during a gala hosted by Semafor, a three-year-old media start-up, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.
“I think this actually is going to be another one of those milestone moments, these next few days, of people getting their mojo back,” Mr. de Blasio said.
He was standing with his girlfriend, Nomiki Konst, an activist and political commentator. “I think people are looking for alliances,” she said.
With a guest list of 1,000 people, the Semafor event was pegged to its World Economy Summit, a gathering of business leaders. The party was also dappled with CNN anchors like Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash. And Mr. Nye, who was snapping selfies with fans.
Ben Smith, Semafor’s editor in chief, described the bewilderment of many attendees in a much-changed Washington. “This is mostly just full of people who are scanning the room for someone who can tell them what is going on,” he said.
Mr. Nye, wearing the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to him by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., decried the possibility of NASA budget cuts. “It’s an extraordinary time to be living,” he said.
Like movie stars, administration officials were in short supply, though the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, participated in an interview at an event sponsored by Axios. Ms. Leavitt defended the administration’s handling of the news media and criticized the board of the White House Correspondents’ Association, saying that it “should not dictate who gets to go into the Oval Office and who gets to ride on Air Force One.”
At a Friday happy hour hosted by Crooked Media at Café Riggs, a tourist wearing a MAGA cap signed by the president stumbled to the front door, before turning back. Inside, the “Pod Save America” crew sipped cocktails and considered their past lives writing presidential remarks for the annual dinner.
Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, said that part of the weekend was “not letting Trump define us as being embittered or divided or sour or imperious or meanspirited or scoldy.”
“We have to be joyful and fun and entertaining and unafraid,” he said.
At a Thursday night party at Fish Shop, a soon-to-open restaurant, another young media company, Status, drew a crowd of reporters. Oliver Darcy, one of its founders, said that no Trump officials had been invited. “We want to have people here who like the First Amendment,” he said.
As the guests munched on crab puffs and fried oysters, Erik Wemple, the media critic for The Washington Post, called the room full of reporters — drinks in hand — “a target-rich environment.”
“People come and gossip,” Mr. Wemple said, calling the scene “extremely clubby” and adding, “If you’re a media critic and you don’t make an effort to come out to a couple of these events, you are really not doing your job.”
Another Thursday gathering — at Vital Voices, which encourages female leadership — honored the International Women’s Media Foundation, which supports female journalists. In a top-floor aerie, Jen Psaki, the MSNBC host and former Biden press secretary, lamented Mr. Trump’s decision not to participate in the dinner.
“I think it’s important to show you can take a joke,” she said. “And honor people making fun of you, and people who have criticized you.”
At an event on Friday at the City Tavern, Roger Lynch, the chief executive of Condé Nast, which sponsored the party with Creative Artists Agency, noticed a headline on his phone concerning an effort by Attorney General Pam Bondi to strip away press protections. (Mr. Nye was in attendance here, too.)
Mr. Lynch was asked whether it was a good time to be partying.
“It’s absolutely the right time,” he said. “Because I think it’s really important that our journalists who cover D.C. feel supported and protected.”
At the U.T.A. party, a late-night affair at Osteria Mozza, a cavernous Italian restaurant in Georgetown, attendees of many other parties assembled all over again, challenging the chitchat skills of even those paid to talk.
The CNN host Jake Tapper described an “unsettled and unsettling time in journalism,” noting the resignation of Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” over disputes regarding journalistic independence.
“I’m not really sure what there is to celebrate,” Mr. Tapper said.
Mr. Isaacs arrived with a fellow actor, Michael Chiklis. A few elected officials trickled in, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, who noted that most politicians aren’t always happy with the way they are covered.
“But you still have to report,” she said. “And you have to respect the rights of the press to report.”
Naturally, Mr. Nye was there, too.
Lifestyle
In ‘No Other Choice,’ a loyal worker gets the ax — and starts chopping
Lee Byung-hun stars in No Other Choice.
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NEON
In an old Kids in the Hall comedy sketch called “Crazy Love,” two bros throatily proclaim their “love of all women” and declare their incredulity that anyone could possibly take issue with it:
Bro 1: It is in our very makeup; we cannot change who we are!
Bro 2: No! To change would mean … (beat) … to make an effort.
I thought about that particular exchange a lot, watching Park Chan-wook’s latest movie, a niftily nasty piece of work called No Other Choice. The film isn’t about the toxic lecherousness of boy-men, the way that KITH sketch is. But it is very much about men, and that last bit: the annoyed astonishment of learning that you’re expected to change something about yourself that you consider essential, and the extreme lengths you’ll go to avoid doing that hard work.
Many critics have noted No Other Choice‘s satirical, up-the-minute universality, given that it involves a faceless company screwing over a hardworking, loyal employee. As the film opens, Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) has been working at a paper factory for 25 years; he’s got the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect family — you see where this is going, right? (If you don’t, even after the end of the first scene, when Man-su calls his family over for a group hug while sighing, “I’ve got it all,” then I envy your blithe disinterest in how movies work. Never change, you beautiful blissful Pollyanna, you.)
He gets canned, and can’t seem to find another job in his beloved paper industry, despite going on a series of dehumanizing interviews. His resourceful wife Miri (Son Ye-jin) proves a hell of a lot more adaptable than he does, making practical changes to the family’s expenses to weather Man-su’s situation. But when foreclosure threatens, he resolves to eliminate the other candidates (Lee Sung-min, Cha Seung-won) for the job he wants at another paper factory — and, while he’s at it, maybe even the jerk (Park Hee-soon) to whom he’d be reporting.
So yes, No Other Choice is a scathing spoof of corporate culture. But the director’s true satirical eye is trained on the interpersonal — specifically the intractability of the male ego.
Again and again, the women in the film (both Son Ye-jin as Miri and the hilarious Yeom Hye-ran, who plays the wife of one of Man-su’s potential victims) entreat their husbands to think about doing something, anything else with their lives. But these men have come to equate their years of service with a pot-committed core identity as men and breadwinners; they cling to their old lives and seek only to claw their way back into them. Man-su, for example, unthinkingly channels the energy that he could devote to personal and professional growth into planning and executing a series of ludicrously sloppy murders.
It’s all satisfyingly pulpy stuff, loaded with showy, cinematic homages to old-school suspense cinematography and editing — cross-fades, reverse-angles and jump cuts that are deliberately and unapologetically Hitchcockian. That deliberateness turns out to be reassuring and crowd-pleasing; if you’re tired of tidy visual austerity, of films that look like TV, the lushness on display here will have you leaning back in your seat thinking, “This right here is cinema, goddammit.”
Narratively, the film is loaded with winking jokes and callbacks that reward repeat viewing. Count the number of times that various characters attempt to dodge personal responsibility by sprinkling the movie’s title into their dialogue. Wonder why one character invokes the peculiar image of a madwoman screaming in the woods and then, only a few scenes later, finds herself chasing someone through the woods, screaming. Marvel at Man-su’s family home, a beautifully ugly blend of traditional French-style architecture with lumpy Brutalist touches like exposed concrete balconies jutting out from every wall.
There’s a lot that’s charming about No Other Choice, which might seem an odd thing to note about such a blistering anti-capitalist screed. But the director is careful to remind us at all turns where the responsibility truly lies; say what you will about systemic economic pressure, the blood stays resolutely on Man-su’s hands (and face, and shirt, and pants, and shoes). The film repeatedly offers him the ability to opt out of the system, to abandon his resolve that he must return to the life he once knew, exactly as he knew it.
Man-su could do that, but he won’t, because to change would mean to make an effort — and ultimately men would rather embark upon a bloody murder spree than go to therapy.
Lifestyle
Austin airport to nearly double in size over next decade
AUSTIN, Texas – Austin-Bergstrom International Airport will nearly double in size over the next decade.
The airport currently has 34 gates. With the expansion projects, it will increase by another 32 gates.
What they’re saying:
Southwest, Delta, United, American, Alaska, FedEx, and UPS have signed 10-year use-and lease agreements, which outline how they operate at the airport, including with the expansion.
“This provides the financial foundation that will support our day-to-day operations and help us fund the expansion program that will reshape how millions of travelers experience AUS for decades to come,” Ghizlane Badawi, CEO of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said.
Concourse B, which is in the design phase, will have 26 gates, estimated to open in the 2030s. Southwest Airlines will be the main tenant with 18 gates, United Airlines will have five gates, and three gates will be for common use. There will be a tunnel that connects to Concourse B.
“If you give us the gates, we will bring the planes,” Adam Decaire, senior VP of Network Planning & Network Operations Control at Southwest Airlines said.
“As part of growing the airport, you see that it’s not just us that’s bragging about the success we’re having. It’s the airlines that want to use this airport, and they see advantage in their business model of being part of this airport, and that’s why they’re growing the number of gates they’re using,” Mayor Kirk Watson said.
Dig deeper:
The airport will also redevelop the existing Barbara Jordan Terminal, including the ticket counters, security checkpoints, and baggage claim. Concourse A will be home to Delta Air Lines with 15 gates. American Airlines will have nine gates, and Alaska Airlines will have one gate. There will be eight common-use gates.
“Delta is making a long-term investment in Austin-Bergstrom that will transform travel for years to come,” Holden Shannon, senior VP for Corporate Real Estate at Delta Air Lines said.
The airport will also build Concourse M — six additional gates to increase capacity as early as 2027. There will be a shuttle between that and the Barbara Jordan Terminal. Concourse M will help with capacity during phases of construction.
There will also be a new Arrivals and Departures Hall, with more concessions and amenities. They’re also working to bring rideshare pickup closer to the terminal.
City officials say these projects will bring more jobs.
The expansion is estimated to cost $5 billion — none of which comes from taxpayer dollars. This comes from airport revenue, possible proceeds, and FAA grants.
“We’re seeing airlines really step up to ensure they are sharing in the infrastructure costs at no cost to Austin taxpayers, and so we’re very excited about that as well,” Council Member Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) said.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Angela Shen
Lifestyle
After years of avoiding the ER, Noah Wyle feels ‘right at home’ in ‘The Pitt’
Wyle, who spent 11 seasons on ER, returns to the hospital in The Pitt. Now in Season 2, the HBO series has earned praise for its depiction of the medical field. Originally broadcast April 21, 2025.
Hear The Original Interview
Television
After years of avoiding the ER, Noah Wyle feels ‘right at home’ in ‘The Pitt’
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