Leno Tapped for White House Press Dinner

Posted on Jan 22, 2010

AP / Gerald Herbert

President Barack Obama appears on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno in March 2009.

The suddenly controversial comic Jay Leno, who’s still embroiled in a public spat about “The Tonight Show” with outgoing host Conan O’Brien, will be the main act at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where well-dressed members of Washington’s media elite rub elbows with politicians and celebrities and where even less effort than usual is made to pretend that D.C. journalists and lawmakers aren’t in bed together.  —KA

‘The TV Column’ in The Washington Post:

To be clear, the association asked Leno weeks ago—when he was simply the host of a prime-time show that was failing five nights a week. But when he appears at the annual Washington bash—which over the past few years has become a Hollywood petting zoo—Leno will be the guy who pushed aside Conan O’Brien to become the newly returned host of NBC’s “Tonight” show. He has also been the butt of pretty much every other late-night talk-show host’s jokes for the past couple of weeks.

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