Media Moguls and Hollywood Heavyweights Dominate Guest List for White House State Dinner

President Biden hosted French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House for the first state dinner of his presidency.

With France’s love of cinema and the arts, it should come as no surprise that the guest list, which the White House released early Thursday evening, is dominated by people with ties to the entertainment industry, from top executives and directors to actors and agents.

Among the media moguls in attendance were top CEOs, including NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, Walt Disney Co. exec Dana Walden, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, CAA managing director Bryan Lourd, and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Actors and other talent from in front of the camera were also in ample supply on the guest list, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Late Show host Stephen Colbert, Jennifer Garner and Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts, John Legend, Chrissy Tiegen, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, and Jon Batiste, who was scheduled to perform later in the evening.

And there were other heavyweights from the entertainment and fashion worlds were in attendance, including MPAA chief Charles Rivkin, directors Baz Luhrman and Florian Zeller, Christian Louboutin, Gabriela Hearst, Anna Wintour, Euro Disney president Natacha Rafalski, and author Jon Meacham.

White House state dinners tend to be highly-scripted affairs, with formal toasts and a multi-course feast reflecting U.S. cuisine and cuisine from the country of the dignitary being honored. In the case of Thursday’s dinner, lobster, steak, caviar and cheese from Oregon (not France) are on the menu, per the White House.

This will actually be the second White House state dinner for Macron, who was also hosted by President Trump in 2018. That dinner saw Rupert Murdoch and Tim Cook attend, with the rest of the entertainment world largely shut out.