In the past, former presidents such as #Barack Obama have enjoyed the company of the press and also Hollywood at the ritzy White House correspondents dinner. First ladies have hung out with major news editors, presidents have told jokes and even sung on the stage, and actors have taken it all in with a degree of awe, since they are not usually comfortable around the press.
But this year it was a more #solemn affair as a ballroom full of press and the media got together to quietly mourn their loss of respect and freedom from the new administration.
They also were given a chance to do so without the glare of Famous actors and actresses from Hollywood in attendance. And without Trump, who wasn't there.
As the guests headed off to after-parties, they told reporters that the night was a 'needed tonic', to the Hollywood centric atmosphere of Correspondents’ Dinners in the past. It may have lost it glitz, said Politico Magazine's Blake Hounshell, but it "recovered its self-respect.”
The most famous actors in the room were Matthew Modine and Alan Ruck, who appeared in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Missing were the loved pros such as Rachel Maddow, Olivia Wilde (who hails from a family of journalists) and Will Smith.
