The White House has spent the day battling a report that they hid a lavish 2009 Halloween Party with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.
“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 Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged," Jodi Kantor wrote in "The Obamas," a report that's been picked up widely in the conservative media.
A White House official noted to BuzzFeed that the event wasn't exactly top secret: Pictures eventually went up on the White House Flickr feed, and a range of television networks covered the party at the time. (The official White House communications, however, didn't mention Depp and Burton.
One place Depp's and Burton's names didn't show up, however, was the White House visitors logs, which the White House posts voluntarily; critics have asked courts to force the Administration to produce more formal and complete lists.
A search of the loggs turns up neither Depp nor Burton. A White House official said that's because performers don't always go through the formal White House entrance procedure.
Emails Republican National Committee research director Joe Pounder:
"The most transparent administration in history somehow forgot to log Johnny Depp coming to the White House. We would have thought the Secret Service would have noticed Edward Scissorhands."