Obama Foodorama’s Eddie Gehman Kohan promises wall-to-wall coverage of tomorrow’s first state dinner of the Obama administration — “Tweeting & blogging just that for the next 48 hours…” The plucky Eddie snagged an invite, and kicked off today with a history lesson from First Lady Michelle Obama in the State Dining Room.
A “big tent” seating 400 (expect to see it all over the morning shows tomorrow) was raised on the South Lawn today. We catch up with Eddie at The Tent, Part IV:
The “tent” is more of a bullet-proof pavilion, though the White House is referring to it as a “tent.” It has glassed-in windows, lights, a sound system, heaters, and hard floor…as well as two satellite structures on each side. It’s obscuring the view of the South Lawn portico for tourists who are braving the rain to check out the White House. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has noted a few times that Marine One, President Obama’s helicopter, has not been able to land on the South Lawn.
The guest of honor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, had his invitation hand delivered by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her July visit. The Telegraph says an invitation to the dinner the most sought-after ticket in the U.S.:
Deepak Chopra, the billionaire pioneer in New Age spirituality, announced on Twitter that he would be flying to Washington to attend and was “V honored to be invited”.
Oprah Winfrey, the talk show hostess, is strongly rumoured to have been invited and there is speculation that George Clooney and Brad Pitt will attend what has been dubbed “Washington’s equivalent of the Oscars”.
According to the well-connected Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke, the former DreamWorks partners Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg will be at the dinner.
See also the first three of Obama Foodorama’s “Building the Dinner Tent” series: Part I, Part II, and Part III. And also Eddie on the challenges of planning the menu for a vegetarian guest while using vegetables from the White House organic garden.
The photo above is Eddie’s. I’m hoping you’ll all click through to her exquisite coverage. Or follow her on Twitter. She promises more and better photos on Flickr tomorrow [no link yet].