KLMNO

Style

MONDAY, MAY 2 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE EZ SU C

BY STEPHANIE PHILLIPS

The desire to take a music

project beyond the confines of an

album has driven the career

direction of so many creatively

ambitious musicians. The music-

to-film pipeline, which includes

classic studio films, such as The

Who’s “Tommy” (1975) or Prince’s

“Purple Rain” (1984), and ex-

tended music video projects,

such as Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” in

2016, can establish an artist’s

auteur status — when done suc-

cessfully.

American singer, rapper and

actress Janelle Monáe, who

made her film debut in 2016,

SEE BOOK WORLD ON C3

BOOK WORLD

Widening

the world

of Monáe’s

music

BY JADA YUAN

T

he question of the weekend was why —

why?! Why would President Biden, a

man of a certain age, with a certain

need not to be leveled by a certain

communicable virus, subject himself to the

potential superspreader event that was the

hyped return of the White House Correspon-

dents’ Association’s annual dinner? The same

dinner, in the same cavernous, poorly ventilat-

ed basement of the Washington Hilton, that

Vice President Harris could not attend because

she already had tested positive for the corona-

virus. The same dinner that Anthony S. Fauci,

the chief medical adviser to Biden, had decided

to skip after some risk management assess-

ment.

Why would famous journalists who sounded

the earliest pandemic alarms in 2020 — CNN’s

Jake Tapper and Don Lemon — want to be

among the packed sardines in the Fiola Mare

restaurant at a Friday night pre-party hosted

by the United Talent Agency? Had no one

learned anything from the Gridiron dinner in

early April? (Or were all 85 people who tested

positive after the event partying it up, perhaps

now believing themselves to be magically im-

mune?) Were we all insane? Stir-crazy? Or

maybe in desperate need of human compan-

ionship in the form of a Kim Kardashian-

Pete Davidson sighting?

You have not lived until you’ve experienced

the centrifugal force that is Kim K., with wet-

look hair and a skintight sparkly silver gown,

walking through the room with Davidson (in

security-guard shades) guiding her and a small

entourage and personal photographer in tow.

Gayle King and Drew Barrymore were

shoved off the red carpet of the ABC News

predinner party (Kardashian was the net-

work’s guest), as King later detailed. Near riots

started as people tried to get a selfie with

Kim-’n’-Pete in the background. (“You don’t

understand, this is the best moment of my life!”

someone shouted. One journalist who has Kim

and Pete as her cellphone backdrop started

crying as she showed the photos she’d

snapped.)

The waters really did part, except for the

many times Kardashian tried to leave the

dinner mob through exits that were only for

Biden, got rebuffed by Secret Service, then

tried again — like, five times. Even those two

weren’t able to escape the balletic feats of

waiters doing their jobs — weaving through a

tuxed and begowned throng of some 2,600

people and tight table arrangements, shouting

“Coming through!” and “Make way!” as they

swung trays laden with steak and fish entrees

extremely close to the heads of Kim and Pete.

SEE WHCD ON C2

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER

D.C.’S PENT-UP

PARTY WEEKEND

Journalists, celebs and pols converged at the Hilton, then fanned out for the all-night, morning-after scene

PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES

ALEXANDER DRAGO/REUTERS

As the would-be
new owner of
Twitter, Elon Musk
has been touting
his passion for free
speech over the
past week.
He’s also been
showing his
confusion, ignorance and utter
lack of sophistication about how
this prized concept really works.
“By ‘free speech,’ I mean that
which matches the law. I am
against censorship that goes far
beyond the law,” he tweeted a few
days ago. “If people want free
speech, they will ask government
to pass laws to that effect.
Therefore, going beyond the law is
contrary to the will of the people.”
SEE SULLIVAN ON C5

A primer on

free speech

for Elon

Musk

Margaret

Sullivan

BY PEGGY MCGLONE

Carlyle Group co-founder Da-

vid M. Rubenstein has been her-

alded for what he calls his “patri-

otic philanthropy” — gifts total-

ing more than $100 million to

support federal monuments, his-

toric sites and national treasures

such as the Kennedy Center and

the Smithsonian Institution.

His latest gift is personal.

Rubenstein will donate $15

million to the U.S. Holocaust Me-

morial Museum to support and

expand its collection. The gift,

which helps the museum exceed

its $1 billion fundraising goal a

year early, will be celebrated

Monday at its annual National

Tribute Dinner. The museum’s

collection, known as the National

Institute for Holocaust Docu-

mentation, will be renamed in

Rubenstein’s honor.

The donation is the result of a

combination of old friends and

current events, the 72-year-old

philanthropist said. In the 1970s,

Rubenstein worked for Stuart E.

SEE RUBENSTEIN ON C3

Rubenstein gives $15 million to Holocaust Museum

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein’s donation will help support and expand the museum’s collection.

TOP: President Biden shakes hands with comedian Trevor Noah, who headlined Saturday. ABOVE: Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson on the red carpet.