Once, and briefly, part of Washington’s power center, two former Trump administration officials were in the midst of New York’s most powerful people in media tonight.
Omarosa Manigault and Anthony Scaramucci were among the guests who packed The Pool, in the Seagram building, site of the annual Hollywood Reporter event honoring New York media bigs. And in another Trump twist, his second wife Marla Maples was here, and so was the attorney for Stormy Daniels, cable news regular Michael Avennati.
The Today show team was out in full force, including THR cover stars Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, as well as Al Roker, Carson Daly, Megyn Kelly, Dylan Dreyer, Sheinelle Jones, and Craig Melvin.
Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell, who, like Guthrie and Kotb, made one of three covers of the THR list issue. GMA’s Robin Roberts was the third cover. She was not able to attend tonight.
Two of the three Fox & Friends were here, with Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade who told us there was one correction to his interview with the AP. He has, in fact, dined with President Trump since he’s been in office. As for the president’s appreciation for Fox News, Kilmeade said Trump appeared on the show weekly before he ran for office and that “he appreciates our audience.”
“Everyone was so nice last year, I decided to come back,” said Sean Hannity, who usually avoids these kinds of events. He chatted up his former colleague Megyn Kelly, his cable competitor Don Lemon, who is also on the list, and Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff. In jest, we asked Hannity if we was planning to book Wolff on his show anytime soon. “You want me to book him for you?” was Hannity’s response.
Hannity also said he feels his feud with Jimmy Kimmel is over. The two fought publicly for several days about a joke Kimmel made at Melania Trump’s expense, but the two TV hosts never talked one-on-one about it.
Other power listers here, CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor, NBC News anchor Lester Holt, CBS News president David Rhodes, Late Show ep Chris Licht, NBC News chairman Andy Lack and president Noah Oppenheim, and ABC News president James Goldston who was with George Stephanopoulos for his interview with former FBI director James Comey. ABC is turning the interview into a one-hour special Sunday night. World News Tonight anchor David Muir is anchoring from Beirut.
Plus, CNN’s Kate Bolduan, FNC’s Harris Faulkner, MSNBC’s Ari Melber, CBS’s Vlad Duthiers, who told us his story of starting out in TV news as a 38-year-old intern, NBC’s Willie Geist, CNN’s Brian Stelter, also MSNBC’s Katy Tur and her husband, CBS’s Tony Dokoupil; and Thomas Roberts, Joy Behar, Ronan Farrow and Martha Stewart.
Fox & Friends co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Ainsekly Earhardt along with Fox News executive Michael Tammero
