Woody Harrelson, Kate Upton, Charlize Theron brave crowds at Correspondents dinner pre-parties
Woody Harrelson had his game face on as the crowds pressed in around him.
Woody! Can we get a photo? A first-time guest this year at the White House Correspondents Association dinner, the movie star agreed again and again, at a Friday night pre-party hosted by Google and the Hollywood Reporter; he playfully turned the tables on one group of fans, grabbing the iPhone to take a photo for them, not with them.
Did he realize that Saturday night was going to be like this times five? For a split second, a flash of surprise broke through the stars usual mellow. But: I guess Ill just manage, he drawled.
Suddenly, Allison Priebe Brooks, a local jewelry designer and socialite leaned in.
Woody! Did you bring your bongos? she squealed.
Pause.
I think youre confusing me with Matthew McConaughey, Harrelson said gently. Its okay. Were like brothers.
He may have been the first truly marquee star to light up the masses at what promises to be an unusually showbiz-glutted weekend. Observation: The more A-listy the lineup (George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, Daniel Day-Lewis, Diane Keaton, Kate Hudson, are among the expected guests), the less likely they are to take advantage of all the pre-game festivities.
The first big party of the weekend -- People and Time's Friday bash at the St. Regis was packed to the rafters, but mostly with media and administration names: Valerie Jarrett, Kathleen Sibelius, Savannah Guthrie, Wolf Blitzer, Norah O'Donnell, Chris Wallace.
View Photo Gallery:Celebrities and media figures turned out for several events before the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.
It feels like a normal party! Christina Sevilla, a D.C. policy type said approvingly. What, without all the Hollywood celebs? Oh, its good to have a few sprinkled about! she said.
The topic of conversation, as usual: The increasing difficulty that D.C. folk have getting seats at the big dinner, especially during an election year. Campaign people take up more room, noted a White House official (yes, he had a seat, at a cable-news hosts table): This year, media hosts have not just government sources to cultivate but those from the various campaigns.
Yet there were also all these well, who were they? At the Google/Hollywood Reporter party at the W Hotel, there were the usual roster of celebrity types Tim Daly, hidden behind a graying goatee; Daniel Dae ! Kim with long-ish hair; Dallas QB Tony Romo and his beauty-queen wife Candice, looking starlet-slim for someone who just had their first born child; a chunk of the Modern Family cast. (Also, Matthew Morrison, the heartthrobby star Glee, back for his lets do the math third consecutive WHCD weekend? You know youve been to too many parties when youre like, Matthew Morrison, again? laughed Emily Goodin, a reporter for The Hill.) But also, under the mod-ish red lighting, a lot of shiny, well-groomed faces you couldnt quite place. There are a lot of celebrities here, noted public-affairs strategist Taylor Griffin. Either that or people I know but cant remember their names. 
Or were they. . . New Yorkers? A quick scan of the room at Atlantic Media owner David Bradleys elegant dinner turned up a lot of corporate execs out-of-towners with only loose connections to media or politics but who wanted a piece of what seems to them an accessibly glamorous event: Less political than an inauguration, more brainy than the Oscars. The dinner drew sponsors like CocaCola, GM, ExxonMobil, Siemens and Vegas's new Cosmopolitan Hotel.
Even the public-radio people were muscling in on the glitzy side of Correspondents weekend, with a Friday Night Spin party DJd by Beyonces younger sister Solange, at Gibson Guitar Center.
"NPR is known for many things---throwing parties is not one of them," the public broadcasters White House correspondent Ari Shapiro t! old us. It happened because two trustees thought NPR should have a bigger profile during WHCA weekend and underwrote the cost.
But for another first-timer, it looked like the best party on earth. A radiant blonde woman in a demure blue frock was dancing her head off to a Michael Jackson tune. She was Kate Upton, 19, the outta-nowhere star of this years Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. In a rare spot of light near the velvet rope, she shimmied, she vamped, she vogued, like a young Marilyn Monroe. She didnt seem to mind if anyone stared and oh, they did.
View Photo Gallery:As the ann! ual dinn er approaches, a look back at past performers who have elicited big laughs and awkward silence, and the famous names who made their way to the celebrity-studded event.
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