Correspondents' Dinner Guests Who Had Tongues Wagging

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By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Poor Michael Kelly. The late columnist and Atlantic Monthly editor always gets the blame for transforming the historically insider-clubby White House Correspondents' Association dinner 20 years ago by bringing Iran-contra It Girl Fawn Hall -- which, legend has it, started the celebrity-guest arms race among the media types who populate the affair. But at least Hall was a bona fide D.C. newsmaker, as was 1988 attendee Donna Rice, the woman who sank the Gary Hart campaign. No, the true responsibility lies with the Clintons: Not until '93 did the dinner start drawing busloads of infatuated Hollywood types. Add the draw of Vanity Fair's glamorous after-party, and the night grew to its current surreal form: yet another pit stop on the Red Carpet Highway. Based on the warm welcome or cold shoulder they received, here's our ranking of VIP guests over the years:

1987 -- Fawn Hall

1988 -- Donna Rice

1990 -- Marla Maples

1993 -- Barbra Streisand

1996 -- Kevin Costner

1997 -- Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche

1998 -- Paula Jones

1999 -- Larry Flynt

2000 -- Cast of "The West Wing"

2002 -- Ozzy Osbourne

2004 -- Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul

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