\u201cAre you getting in?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dNo, are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n On Thursday afternoon, in the lobby of the Trump Kennedy Center, reporters whispered in hushed voices to each other to see which journalists, if any, would be allowed entry to a screening of Melania Trump\u2019s documentary \u201cMelania.\u201d<\/p>\n In the hours\u00a0before the film screened (press check-in began\u00a0at 2 p.m. for\u00a0the\u00a06 p.m.\u00a0carpet), there was slight optimism from veteran reporters, accustomed to slipping their way into Trump World, that they\u2019d be able to network their way into a seat. But by\u00a06:30 p.m.,\u00a0when members of the administration began walking the carpet, it became clear that most of the mainstream press would be blocked from attending the Amazon MGM Studios film.<\/p>\n Reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Vanity Fair, among dozens of other outlets on the carpet, were not granted tickets to the invite-only screening in the Opera House, located one floor above the carpet. The only press from the carpet allowed into the screening (not counting those separately invited) were One America News anchor Dan Ball and his wife Peyton Drew, a producer for the far-right news channel.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel overdressed,\u201d Drew, who wore a floor-length glitter ballgown on the press line, told her husband before talent arrived. \u201cBut,\u201d she quickly reassured herself, \u201cwe\u2019re attendees.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of the Trump administration \u2014 Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, Lee Zeldin and Mike Johnson \u2014 attended the film\u2019s premiere, in addition to the film\u2019s director Brett Ratner and producer Marc Beckman. Several times when government officials walked towards the press line, Ball would encourage them to skip the \u201cfake news\u201d and come straight to him. At one point, after wrapping an interview with former Trump advisor Alina Habba, he called the rest of the reporters on the carpet \u201cmongrels,\u201d to which they both laughed.<\/p>\n That said, President Trump spent a surprising amount of time answering questions from mainstream press while Melania, wearing a Dolce & Gabbanna skirt suit, posed for photos. Reporters from The New York Times and Reuters asked Trump a slew of questions, such as progress on the government funding deal and when he plans on choosing a replacement for Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chair (Friday morning, he says).<\/p>\n The film is opening in theaters against a\u00a0backdrop of political unrest<\/a>, with ICE raids in Minneapolis and other parts of the country \u2014 causing increased backlash against the administration\u2019s glitzy White House screening earlier this week (with Apple CEO Tim Cook in attendance) and tonight\u2019s premiere.<\/p>\n When asked about the exorbitant amount of money Amazon spent on the film \u2014 Amazon MGM paid $40 million for rights to the doc, and reportedly another $35 million on marketing \u2014 Trump said he \u201cwasn\u2019t involved with that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was done with my wife,\u201d he said, adding that he thinks the movie \u201cis very important\u201d and \u201d a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the staggering sum spent for a documentary, it is only expected to earn $3 million to $5 million at the box office. The lack of advance ticket sales have become a meme online, with screenshots of empty movie theaters on ticketing sites such as Fandango making their rounds on social media \u2014 although, these can only be verified on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n But producer Marc Beckman said the reports he\u2019s received \u2014 \u201cthe real numbers\u201d \u2014 are tracking \u201cvery positively.\u201d<\/p>\n The film also marks Ratner\u2019s return to directing after a hiatus following several sexual misconduct allegations in 2017. Ahead of the premiere, Rolling Stone reported that some crew members requested to not be formally credited on the film, with one citing the \u201calarm\u201d they felt about the administration following Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand if a liberal is working on the movie and they don\u2019t want to be credited but they want to feed their family,\u201d Ratner told Variety. \u201cI don\u2019t blame anybody for that.\u201d He continued to say that the \u201cmain crew\u201d will all be credited but because the doc shot in multiple places \u2014 such as Washington D.C.. New York and Florida \u2014 it was likely the daily or short term hires that decided to distance themselves from the project.<\/p>\n In general, members of the administration looked to be in high spirits while walking to the pre-screening reception. \u201cHappy to be here!\u201d Hegseth, who attended with his wife, exclaimed to the press line. Others expressed how excited they are for the public to see the \u201creal Melania.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy said he came to support Melania because she has been one of his biggest supporters in the administration for his agenda, such as children\u2019s health, food regulations and foster care.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019s been portrayed as a one dimensional figure,\u201d he said, \u201cbut that\u2019s not who she is.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAre you getting in?\u201d \u201dNo, are you?\u201d More from Variety On Thursday afternoon, in the lobby of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[6580,324,215110,77,217044,13859,3943,217047,1551,17287,217046,16,15,217045],"class_list":{"0":"post-730232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-amazon","10":"tag-brett-ratner","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-mainstream-press","13":"tag-melania-trump","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-peyton-drew","16":"tag-president-trump","17":"tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","18":"tag-trump-world","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-walking-the-carpet"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115982610485307055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}