July 31, 2029—President Angelina Jolie yesterday tried to push herself and the nation beyond a political uproar when she hosted Paula Abdul and a security guard who arrested her two weeks ago at Los Angeles International Airport.
Jolie hosted the so-called “chardonnay summit” in the Rose Garden in an effort to strike a chord of harmony between Abdul and security officer Sara Chu. Abdul slapped Chu at a security checkpoint June 28, and was subsequently arrested, after the guard confiscated three bottles of gin that the 
singer and former American Idol judge had packed in her carry-on luggage. Abdul was angry that Chu singled her out for examination, saying the woman should have recognized her and “treated me like the gift I am.”
The incident sparked a national debate about the rights of celebrity divas to be treated differently than everyone else.
The White House event was designed not only to make peace between the two parties but also to quell the controversy over Jolie’s remarks about the incident. In a press conference last week, Jolie said that the security officer “acted admirably” and that Abdul isn’t the gift she believes herself to be. The president apologized for the remark two days later.
The wine summit mirrored the historic “beer summit” that former President Barack Obama hosted in 2009 to strike a peace accord between Massachusetts Gov. James Crowley, then a Cambridge police officer, and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whom Crowley arrested at his home after receiving a 911 call about a suspected burglary there. Gates had accused Crowley of racial profiling. That incident, and criticism that Obama later leveled against the Cambridge police department, sparked a national debate on race.
In a statement issued after the meeting between the three ladies, Jolie acknowledged that Abdul and Chu did not exchange apologies but had a productive conversation.
“I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart,” the nation’s first Oscar-winning president said after the highly anticipated meeting ended. “I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode and rise above the bitch-slapping that occurred at LAX.”
The meeting lasted an hour, but was abruptly halted when Abdul passed out and had to be carried away in a stretcher.
