WASHINGTON — White House protocol officials are scrambling to assemble the sensitive seating chart for the head table at an official state dinner honoring philandering French President François Hollande.
Officials in Paris announced days ago that Hollande — who dumped girlfriend Valérie Trierweiler last month reportedly for actress Julie Gayet — would be coming stag on his US visit.
But administration officials who provided reporters with a sneak peek at the menu and place settings for the glamorous dinner said seating at the head table wasn’t finalized as of Monday — and wouldn’t be until just hours before the event.
Normally, one seat next to the guest of honor would be reserved for his companion. It wasn’t certain whether the rectangular head table in the elegantly decorated State Dining Room would accommodate 10 guests.
The White House was preparing to crank up the glitz as a tribute to its oldest ally — at a time when Washington and France have moved closer on policy toward the Middle East. Mary J. Blige is bringing her soulful sounds to 348 guests who will gather under tents on the White House’s South Lawn.
Hollande was to visit the ornate White House Blue Room, stocked with gilded French furnishings selected by President James Monroe in 1817.
The menu will include dry-aged rib-eye beef, American Osetra Caviar and an assortment of fine American wines, including a Chardonnay from Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s master creation near Charlottesville, Va., which Obama and Hollande toured on Monday.
An administration official said the polar vortex had wreaked havoc on First Lady Michelle Obama’s White House garden, requiring a “winter garden salad” to draw on hothouse vegetables from private growers.
Hollande, whose approval ratings at home have tanked following reports of his mistress scandal, is the most prominent Frenchman to visit Monticello since the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, came to call on his old friend Jefferson in 1824, according to Leslie Greene Bowman, who runs the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
“Let’s just say that we’ve come a long way from ‘freedom fries,’ ” said a senior administration official, referring to the House GOP decision to rename french fries in the congressional cafeteria over France’s opposition to the 2003 Iraq invasion.