Obama administration facing backlash to secret Alice in Wonderland party from 2009

The first pictures of the infamous Alice in Wonderland Halloween party at the White House emerged as it was revealed the Obama administration kept the 2009 celebration under wraps  for two years.

‘White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans — or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care — that the event was not discussed publicly and Tim Burton’s and Johnny Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,’ recounts Ms Kantor in her book.

From the Daily Mail:

The pictures will likely add to the embarrassment for the administration as the Obamas have been highly criticized for hosting a lavish Halloween party- with guests like actor Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton- in 2009 at the same time that the country was in the midst of a recession.

The initial news of the party came from a book, written by New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor, which maintains that the reason why it was kept so quiet at the time was because the administration was aware that it would be in poor form for them to host an extravagant party when so many were suffering financially.

It turns out that Depp, Burton and Mia Wasikowska made appearances at the White House’s Alice in Wonderland-themed Halloween party in 2009, where roughly 2,000 kids frolicked on the North Lawn and got to see Barack and Michelle Obama.

The party- which was attended by military families, the families of White House staffers, and the first daughters’ friends- which was decorated like Mr Burton’s then-unreleased film Alice In Wonderland, and the movie’s two biggest stars- Mr Depp and Mia Wasikowska- mingled among guests.

Jay Carney responded to the “controversy,” telling ABC Radio’s Ann Compton and Fox News’ Ed Henry that it wasn’t actually a secret at all.

Mediaite transcribed the exchange:

“This is a perfect example — it goes right to my first point about how these books — books like these take these things out of context. A couple of outlets that I won’t name, you know, reported a secret party — well, if it was secret, why did we invite the press in, why was there a pool report and contemporaneous photographs?”

“There was a story about Johnny Depp being there?” Compton asked.

“There wasn’t a publicity event for the outside, Carney replied. “It was a military event for their children and their families inside the White House where the press came, photographs were taken. It was contemporaneously known who was here. If that’s — if we’re trying to hide something by bringing in the press, we’re not very good at it.”

“For the record, there’s not one statement from this White House –” Compton stated.

“But, again, the purpose wasn’t for — we do a lot of these things july 4th, other events here, including other events that are geared towards military families and their kids where the purpose isn’t to publicize them externally for you guys but to have a nice event for them here, which is different from trying to hide anything.”

Nothing to hide at all.

Sources: E Online, Daily Mail