Biden Brings Back Illustrious Star-Studded State Dinner

Over 300 guests gathered at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for the first time in two years for President Joe Biden’s first state dinner.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Biden cancelled the black-tie event that has been customary since the early nineteenth century.

Celebrities, politicians and power players filled the White House’s South Lawn on Thursday night for the occasion.

The Hollywood list of attendees included John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Stephen Colbert, Julia Louis Dreyfus and her 30-year-old son Charlie Hall, Baz Luhrmann, Jennifer Garner and her 17-year-old daughter Violet Affleck and Ariana DeBose.

Politicians included the expected guests like Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and so on. One stand-out politician at the party was French President Emmanuel Macron, who attended with his wife Brigitte.

In recent years, relations between European leaders and the US have been fractured since drama erupted between former President Donald Trump and foreign leaders at the NATO summit in London in 2019.

The two presidents exchanged gifts as is tradition during state dinners, which seemed to be a good start. Kind words were also exchnged between the two.

"Tonight we celebrate the enduring alliance between France and the United States,"said Biden during a toast. "Vive la France and God bless America."

President Macron added that the two countries come from "the same values" of "we, the people."

Big wigs such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, Micron Technology CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Boeing CEO David Calhoun, Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and French fashion designer Christian Louboutin were also at the event.

Supporters of Biden also came to show further support. Billionaire businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs, who gave more than $700,000 to the Biden Victory Fund, attended. Producer and former Walt Disney Studios chair Jeffrey Katzenberg also attended and donated over $700,000 to Biden’s fund.

New Orleans’ own and Grammy-winning singer and musician Jon Batiste was recruited to entertain these high-profile guests for the evening along with his band. An array of cheeses, Maine lobster, beef with shallot marmalade were on the menu. The event closed out with, of course, dessert and attendees were served orange chiffon cake.