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« More State Dinner Lineup: A.R. Rahman, Kurt Elling, Marvin Hamlisch | Main | Superlatives at the State Dinner »

White House Releases "The List": Geffen at the POTUS Table

Updated

The Obama administration just released the list of those expected at tonight's state dinner.

Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts, Fareed Zakaria and Tom Friedman are among the journalists invited. The Hollywood contingent includes the Dreamworks trio, Mark Gorenberg and Wendy Wanderman, Ari Emanuel, M. Night Shyamalan, Kate Clinton and Urvashi Vaid, Alfre Woodard and Blair Underwood, Michael Lynton and Jamie Alter Lynton. Oprah Winfrey will not make it, but Gayle King is expected. Others expected include GE chairman Jeffrey Immelt, former FCC chairman Newton Minow and Facebook's Chris Hughes.

David Geffen and his boyfriend, Jeremy Lingvall, will be at the president's table along with Gursharan Kaur, the wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), according to the Washington Post. Ambassador to India Tim Roemer and his guest Mary Johnston; Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi; and Nancy and Paul Pelosi. Prime Minister Singh will be at the First Lady's table along with Colin Powell, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and others.

How did Geffen land such a plum spot? He was an early supporter of Obama's, having hosted him at his home when he was still a senator, and famously injected himself into presidential politics with a scathing critique of Hillary Clinton in an interview he gave to Maureen Dowd in February, 2007, just as he was co-hosting Obama's first major Hollywood fund-raiser. He's also good friends with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, which can't hurt when it comes to seating arrangements.

It's not hard to guess why the invites went out to many of the names: They were bundlers and fund-raisers during the campaign, or stumped for Obama on the trail. Other factors may be at play as well. In addition to holding fund-raisers for candidate Obama, Lynton presides over a media company, Sony Pictures Entertainment, with a big presence in India, including one of the leading Hindi language channels. Lynton also was named one of the 75 "Architects of the Indian Century" by the Indian biz publication, Business & Economy magazine. Dreamworks and Spielberg have a deal with Indian media company Reliance.

Minow served as chairman of the FCC during the Kennedy administration,  but was a big Obama booster and hired him as a summer associate to the law firm of Sidley & Austin.

Nevertheless, there's bound to be some unhappy supporters who didn't make the cut, as First Lady Michelle Obama went to some length today to explain that the event had a limited capacity. (About 300 or so).

Politico has a live stream of the event, with Oscar-like arrivals, here.

The full list below:

The President & First Lady Michelle Obama

Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, India & Ms. Gursharan Kaur


The Honorable (Rep) Gary Ackerman, United States Representative

Mr. Sant Singh Chatwal (Guest)


His Excellency Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


Mr. Mukesh D Ambani


Mr. Tim Dutta (Spouse of Ms. Pia Awal)


The Honorable (Mr.) David Axelrod, White House Communications

Mrs. Susan Axelrod


Ms. Preeta Bansal, OMB - General Counsel


The Honorable (Ms.) Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Council

Mr. Marland E. Buckner


The Honorable (Rep.) Howard Berman, United States Representative (D/California)

Mrs. Jane Berman, Spouse of United States Representative (D/California)


Mr. Om Prakash Bhatt


Mr. Hunter Biden

Mrs. Kathleen Biden


The Honorable (Vice President) Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice President of the United States

Dr. Jill Biden


Mr. Robert O Blake, Jr., Assistant Sec for South and Central Asian Affairs, State Department

Mrs. Sofia Blake


Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York, NY

Ms. Diana Taylor


The Honorable (Mr.) John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor for Counterterrorism, Homeland Security Council

Mrs. Katherine Brennan


The Honorable (Ms.) Lisa Brown, Office of Staff Secretary

Mr. Kevin Cullen


Mr. Donald Browne

Ms. Maria Junqera


The Honorable (Ms.) Carol Browner, Energy and Climate Change

The Honorable (Mr.) Tom Downey


Mr. William Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Department of State

Ms. Lisa Carty


General James E Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Mrs. Sandee Cartwright


The Honorable (Senator) Bob Casey, United States Senator (D/Pennsylvania)

Mrs. Terese Casey, United States Senate Spouse (D/Pennsylvania)


Mr. Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Mrs. Julie Chandrasekaran


Mr. I.S. Chaturvedi, Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


Senator Satveer Chaudhry, State Senator

Colonel Ravi Chaudhry (Guest)


Ms. Rohini Chopra


Mr. Deepak Chopra

Mrs. Rita Chopra


The Honorable (Secretary) Steven Chu, Secretary of the Department of Energy

Mrs. Jean Chu


The Honorable (Secretary) Hillary R. Clinton, Secretary of State


The Honorable (Rep.) James E. Clyburn, United States Representative (D/South Carolina)

Mrs. Emily Clyburn


The Honorable (Senator) Kent Conrad, United States Senator (D/North Dakota)

Ms. Lucy Calutti, United States Senate Spouse (D/North Dakota)


Mr. David Cote


Ms. Katie Couric

Mr. Brooks L Perlin


Mr. Greg Craig, Assistant to the President and Counsel to the President

Mrs. Margaret D Craig


Mrs. Paula Crown

Mr. Jim Crown


The Honorable (Rep.) Elijah Cummings, United States Representative (D/Maryland)

Mrs. Maya Rockeymoore


Senator Swati Dandekar, State Senator

Mr. Arvind Dandekar


Mr. Rajesh De, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice


Nancy Ann DeParle, Office of Health Reform

Mr. Jason P DeParle


Ms. Bhairavi Desai

Javaid Tariq


Dr. Vishakha N. Desai

Robert Oxman


The Honorable (Senator) Chris Dodd, United States Senator (D/Connecticut)

Mrs. Jackie Clegg Dodd


Mr. John Doerr


The Honorable (Mr.) Thomas Donilon, Assistant to the President, Deputy National Security Advisor, NSC

Ms. Cathy Russell


The Honorable Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director

Mr. Bob Bauer


Mr. Ari Emanuel

Mrs. Sarah Emanuel


The Honorable (Mr.) Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff to the President

Ms. Amy Rule


The Honorable (Mr.) Jon Favreau, Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting


Ms. Sarah Feinberg, Office of the Chief of Staff


The Honorable (Mayor) Adrian Fenty, Mayor of the District of Columbia

Mrs. Michelle Fenty


Ms. Michelle Flournoy


Mr. Thomas Friedman

Mrs. Ann Friedman


The Honorable (Mr.) Mike Froman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs, NSC


Dr. Ashok S Ganguly


The Honorable (Mr.) Patrick Gaspard, Office of Political Affairs

Mrs. Raina Washington


The Honorable Robert Gates


Ms. Charlene Gaynor

Mr. Richard Heiss


Mr. David Geffen

Mr. Jeremy Lingvall


The Honorable (Secretary) Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury

Ms. Carole Sonnenfeld


The Honorable (Mr.) Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary


Mr. Anish Goel, Acting Senior Director, South Asia Affairs, NSC


Mr. Senapathy Gopalakrishnan


Mr. Mark Gorenberg

Ms. Wendy Wanderman


Mr. John Gorman

Mrs. Tamra Gorman


Representative Jay Goyal, State Representative

Kiran Goyal


Representative Raj Goyle, State Representative

Mrs. Monica Arora


The Honorable (Governor) Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan (D)

Mr. Daniel Mulhern, First Gentleman of Michigan


Mr. Earl G. Graves

Mrs. Barbara Graves


Ms. Geeta Rao Gupta

Mr. Arvind Gupta


Mr. Raj Gupta


Mr. Rajat Gupta

Mrs. Anita M Gupta


Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Mrs. Rebecca Olson Gupta


Mr. Lee Hamilton

Mrs. Nancy Hamilton


The Honorable (Ms.) Kamala Harris

Ms. Maya Harris


Mr. Kamil Hassan

Mrs. Talat Hassan


Mr. George Haywood

Mrs. Cheryl J Haywood


The Honorable Fred Hochberg, Export-Import Bank

Thomas P Healy


The Honorable (Rep.) Paul Hodes, United States Representative (D/New Hampshire)

Mrs. Margaret Hodes


The Honorable (Attorney General) Eric Holder, United States Attorney General, Department of Justice

Dr. Sharon Malone, MD


Dr. John P. Holdren

Dr. Cheryl E Holdren


The Honorable (Rep.) Eleanor Holmes-Norton, United States of Representative (D/DC)

Mr. John Norton


Mr. Robert D Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs, State Department

Ms. Camille Massey


The Honorable (Rep) Steny Hoyer, United States Representative (D/Maryland)

Ms. Kathleen May


Mr. Chris Hughes

Mr. Sean S Eldridge


Mr. Jeff Immelt


The Honorable (Senator) Daniel Inouye, United States Senator (D/Hawaii)

Ms. Irene Hirano, United States Senate Spouse (D/Hawaii)


Mrs. Deepa Iyer

Mr. Parag Khandhar

Mr. Vasudeva Iyer


The Honorable (Administrator) Lisa Jackson, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency

    Mr. Kenneth Jackson


The Honorable (Ms.) Valerie Jarrett, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor


The Honorable (Governor) Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana

    Mrs. Supriya Jindal, First Lady of Louisiana


The Honorable (General) James Jones, Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor

Mrs. Diane Jones


Mrs. Ann Jordan

    Mr. Vernon Jordan


Mr. Anil Kakani


Mr. Farooq Kathwari

Mrs. Farida Kathwari


Mr. Neal Katyal, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, Office of the Solicitor General


Mr. Jeffrey Katzenberg

Mrs. Marilyn Katzenberg


Ms. Maneesha Kelkar, Manavi

    Vinay Vaishampayan


The Honorable (Senator) John Kerry, United States Senator (D/Massachusetts)


Dr. Harish Khare, Media Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, Indian Delegation


The Honorable (Mr.) Bradley Kiley, Office of Management and Administration

Mr. James Coley, Jr.


Ms. Gayle King


The Honorable (Ambassador) Ron Kirk, USTR

Mrs. Matrice Ellis-Kirk


The Honorable (Mr.) Ronald Klain, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the Vice President, Office of the Vice President


Mrs. Chanda D Kochhar


His Excellency S.M. Krishna, Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


Ms. Gaitri Kumar, Joint Secretary (Americas), Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


Mr. Vivek Kundra


Mrs. Jhumpa Lahiri

Mr. Alberto Vourvoulias


Mr. Marc Lasry

Cathy Lasry


Mr. Jacob Lew, Deputy Secretary, Department of State


The Honorable Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce

Mrs. Mona Locke


The Honorable (Mr.) Christopher Lu, Cabinet Affairs

Ms. Kathryn Thomson


The Honorable (Senator) Richard Lugar, United States Senator (R/Indiana)

    Mrs. Char Lugar, United States Senate Spouse (R/Indiana)


Mr. Michael Lynton

    Ms. Elizabeth Jamie Alter


Mr. Surinder Malhotra


The Honorable (Chief of Protocol) Capricia Marshall


The Honorable (Ms.) Alyssa Mastromonaco, White House Office of Scheduling


Mr. Brian Mathis

    Mrs. Tracey Kemble


Ms. Kiran Mazumda-Shaw


The Honorable (Senator) Claire McCaskill, United States Senator (D/Missouri)

    Mr. Joseph Shepard, United States Senate Spouse


The Honorable (Rep) Jim McDermott, United States Representative (D/Washington)

    Mrs. Therese Marie Hansen


Mr. Zarin Mehta

    Ms. Carmen Lasky


The Honorable (Mr.) Jim Messina, Office of Chief of Staff


Mr. Judd Miner

    Mrs. Linda Miner


Mr. Newt Minow

    Mrs. Josephine Minow


Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal


Kalpen Modi, Associate Director, Office of Public Engagement


Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    Mrs. Deborah Mullen


The Honorable (Secretary) Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security


His Excellency M.K. Narayanan, National Security Adviser of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


Mr. Shantanu Narayen

    Mrs. Reni Narayen


Mr. Raju Narisetti

    Durga Raghunath


Mr. Martin Nesbitt

    Ms. Anita Blanchard


Mr. Konrad Ng

    Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng


Ms. Indra Nooyi


The Honorable (Rep) David Obey, United States Representative (D/Wisconsin)

    Mrs. Joan Obey


The Honorable (Mr.) Peter Orszag, Director, Office of Management & Budget


Mr. Jim Owens

    Ms. Katie Owens


Mr. Deepak Parekh


Mr. Eboo Patel

    Ms. Shehnez Mansuri


The Honorable (Governor) Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts (D)

    Mrs. Diane Patrick, First Lady of Massachusetts


The Honorable (Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, United States Representative (D/California) and Speaker of the House

    Mr. Paul Pelosi


Mr. Dan Pfeiffer, White House Office of Communications


Mr. Sam Pitroda

    Mrs. Anjana Pitroda


General Colin Powell

    Ms. Alma Powell


Dr. Rachakonda D Prabhu

    Dr. Lata Shete Prabhu


Mrs. Penny Pritzker

    Dr. Brian Traubert


Ms. Kavita Ramdas


Her Excellency Nirupama Rao, Foreign Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


Ms. Preetha Reddy


The Honorable (Governor) Edward Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania (D)

    The Honorable (Judge) Marjorie Rendell, First Lady of Pennsylvania


Mr. Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting


The Honorable (Ambassador) Susan Rice, United States Ambassador to the United Nations

    Mr. Ian Cameron


The Honorable (Governor) Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico (D)

    Mrs. Barbara Richardson, First Lady of New Mexico


Ms. Robin Roberts


Mrs. Marian Robinson


Ambassador Timothy Roemer, US Ambassador to India

    Mrs. Mary Johnston


Ms. Desiree Rogers, Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary


Mr. John Rogers


The Honorable (Dr.) Christina Romer, Chair, Council of Economic Advisers


Mr. Dennis Ross, NSC


The Honorable (Rep) Edward Randall Royce, United States Representative

    Marie Therese Royce


Mr. Michael Sacks

    Mrs. Cari Sacks


The Honorable (Rep.) Linda Sanchez, United States Representative (D/California)

    Mr. James Sullivan, Guest of Then Honorable Linda Sanchez


Mr. Pankaj Saran, Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


His Excellency Shyam Saran, Special Envoy to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, Indian Delegation


Mr. Jaideep Sarkar, Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


Mr. Parag Saxena


The Honorable (Rep.) Jan Schakowsky, United States Representative (D/Illinois)

    Mr. Robert Creamer


The Honorable (Mr.) Phil Schiliro, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs  

Mrs. Jody Schiliro


Ms. Annetta Seecharran

    Seema Agnani


Mr. Stuart Seldowitz, Acting Director for South Asia, NSC


Dr. Amartya Sen

    Ms. Emma Georgina Rothschild


Under Secretary Rajiv J Shah, Under Secretary for Research, Education & Economics, Department of Agriculture


The Honorable Sonal Shah, Deputy Assist to the President, Director Office of SICP, Domestic Policy Council


Mr. Vinod Shah


Her Excellency Meera SHANKAR, Ambassador, India


The Honorable Susan Sher, Assistant to the President/Chief of Staff to the First Lady

    The Honorable (Mr.) Neil Cohen


Mr. M. Night Shyamalan

    Mrs. Bhavna Shyamalan


Ms. Amrit Singh

Mr. Analjit Singh


Mr. Arun K. Singh, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of India, Indian Delegation


Mr. Balvinder Singh

    Mr. Mohinder Singh


Mr. Lakhwinder Singh

    Mrs. Sukhbir Kaur


Ms. Upinder Singh


Mr. Steven Spielberg


Mr. Sri Srinivasan

Ms. Carla Garrett


Ms. Srinija Srinivasan


The Honorable (Mr.) Jim Steinberg, Deputy Secretary of State

    Ms. Sherburne Bradstreet


Mrs. Semonti Stephens, Deputy Press Secretary, Office of the First Lady


Mr. Andy Stern

    Ms. Anna Burger


Mrs. Jane Stetson

Mr. Bill Stetson


Honorable (Dr.) Larry Summers, Director, National Economic Council

    Dr. Elisa New


The Honorable (Ms.) Mona Sutphen, Office of Chief of Staff

    Mr. Clyde Williams


Mr. Ratan Tata


The Honorable (Ms.) Tina Tchen, Office of Public Liaison


Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally, Ambassador, Embassy of Belize

    Mrs. Barbara Thummalapally


Mr. Jim Torrey

    Ms. Rose P Lynch


Mr. Richard Trumka

    Mr. Paul H Lemmon


Ms. Urvashi Vaid

Ms. Kate Clinton


Mr. Kirk Wagar

Ms. Crystal Connor


Dr. Eric E. Whitaker

    Dr. Cheryl Whitaker


Mr. Brian Williams

Mrs. Jane Williams


Mr. Wellington Wilson

    Mrs. Wilson


Mr. Neal Wolin, Deputy Secretary, Department of Treasury


Ms. Alfre Woodard

Mr. Blair E Underwood


Mr. Fareed Zakaria

    Ms. Paula Throckmorton Zakaria

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Wilshire & Washington highlights the enduring relationship between entertainment and politics. More than a mere curiosity, the intersection of these worlds play out daily in fund raising, celebrity causes, show business lobbying and creative expression. Variety managing editor Ted Johnson provides the daily dose with contributions from reporters in L.A. and D.C.

Winner, Blog of the Year 2008, Southern California Journalism Awards.





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