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Following last year's much-lauded (and lambasted) performance by Stephen Colbert that skewered the President and tossed darts at the D.C. press corps, the planners for the White House Correspondents Dinner have chosen "master impressionist" Rich Little to host this year's event, reports Editor & Publisher. The sexagenarian comic, who hosted the dinner in 1984 after winning fame in the '70s for his regular appearances on Dean Martin's celebrity roasts and spot-on (and then relevant) impersonations of Richard Nixon, marks a notable change from the hosts of recent years (a list that, in addition to Colbert, has included Jon Stewart and Cedric the Entertainer). E&P quotes President of the White House Correspondents Association Steve Scully, who made the decision to book Little, as saying, "My approach is to try to make it a comfortable venue that is enjoyable, funny and interesting...But you don't want to offend anyone." Scully then invoked the reported slogan for the Washington Gridiron Dinner: "Singe, don't burn" (though he later noted that Colbert's appearance was a "success" and played no role in this year's tamer choice). Meanwhile, Ron Hutcheson, a McClatchy Newspapers reporter and former WHCA president who organized the 2005 dinner, reportedly applauded the choice of Little, saying, "We don't need to have a blogfest and a partisan slugfest after the dinner. We don't need that." Oh no, certainly not. After all, who needs that?
(ETP Value-Added Fun Fact: Though he now lives full-time in Las Vegas, Rich Little grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, where he attended Lisgar Collegiate with Peter Jennings, as well as ETP editor Rachel Sklar's mom, who confirms that Little used to perform at school concerts doing impressions of teachers, the principal, and Jimmy Stewart.)
