Kardashian and Lohan Score Tickets to the White House Correspondents Dinner

Shock abounds

A Fox News anchor’s decision to invite Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan to the White House Correspondents Dinner this Saturday has sparked enough of a backlash (and an abundance of wisecracks) to prompt the journalist in question to respond to inquiries about her choice of guests.

Greta Van Susteren defended her Lohan-pick to TMZ Thursday, explaining that the tabloid-magnet was on an encouraging upswing.

"I love comebacks, and I'd like her to succeed," she said.

The Christian Science Monitor, which wrote about the growing number of beautiful people on the dinner's guest list, remarked that "we're not sure Ms. Lohan qualifies as beautiful, given her personal problems, but we appreciate the gesture by Fox anchor Greta Van Susteren."

MTV called the choices "odd," Yahoo News quipped that the Secret Service better beef up security at the affair, and Meghan McCain took to Twitter to decry what she painted as the hypocrisy of Van Susteren's choice.

“Let me get this straight Greta Van Susteren is bringing Lindsay Lohan to the WHC Dinner but has a moral offense to Louie C.K.?” (Van Susteren posted an entry on her website last month titled, “I refuse to go to the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner – no one should go,” after she heard that Louis C.K. “another pig” was the headliner. He later bowed out.)

TMZ's report didn't include any explanation about her choice of the reality TV queen, though that's yesterday's news. The anchor invited Kardashian in 2010, though of course, that preceded her new, neither confirmed, nor denied romance with Kanye West, whom the president has twice called a jackass. He will not be her guest. Her ever-present mother will again be by her side as she joins a gaggle of media and Hollywood hotshots for an evening of fine dining, elbow-rubbing and tame jokes, led by M.C., Jimmy Kimmel.

If past performances are any indication, Kardashian should be just fine. David Chalian, the Washington Bureau Chief of Yahoo! News recalled a pleasant encounter with the eldest Kardashian sibling at the 2010 dinner.

"The most surprising conversation I had at a dinner was a few years back when I was introduced to Kim Kardashian and she became intrigued by last name's Armenian heritage," he told Yahoo! News. "She began to educate me about the Armenian genocide well beyond anything I had ever known prior to meeting the Hollywood starlet. It was a good thing she steered the conversation and informed me all about this issue near and dear to her because I had never seen her reality TV show and didn't know what we would talk about. Who woulda thunk?"

As for Lohan, there need not be concern that the rebounding actress will pull any shenanigans. She is attending with her attorney, Shawn Holley, the Washington Post's Reliable Source reported.

Other celebrities who will attend the 92-year-old Washington function, according to the Daily News, include George Clooney and Steven Spielberg, guest of Time Inc.; Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen and Elizabeth Banks, guests of ABC; Reese Witherspoon and "Help" star Viola Davis, guests of Newsweek/Daily Beast; Pierce Brosnan, guest of the Washington Post; and Rosario Dawson, guest of the Atlantic.

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