A state dinner for Kenya at the White House will count actors LeVar Burton and Sean Penn and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell among its guests.
The White House released the names on the exclusive guest list — which also include Don McLean, Huma Abedin, philanthropist Melinda French Gates and “NCIS” star Wilmer Valderrama — just ahead of Thursday’s black-tie fete for Kenyan President William Ruto.
First lady Jill Biden had described the event, the sixth state dinner of the Biden administration, as a celebration to “mark the 60th anniversary of the United States’ partnership with Kenya.”
Country music star Brad Paisley and the Howard Gospel Choir are poised to perform at the dinner, which will be held in a pavilion on the South Lawn.
Guests will dine on a summertime-style meal: chilled tomato soup, a lobster poached in butter, and marinated short ribs with kale and roasted corn. Dessert will include homemade white chocolate baskets decorated with the Kenyan and American flags, filled with nectarine paste and banana ganache and topped with fresh raspberries and peaches.
The Kenya state dinner will be the first such soiree at the White House for an African nation in more than a decade; then-President George W. Bush hosted the president of Ghana in 2008.
—Updated at 5:10 p.m. EDT