WASHINGTON — Top performers and power players from Hollywood, Broadway and Washington gathered Sunday to honor five recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors. Tom Hanks, Lily Tomlin, singers Sting and Al Green, and ballerina Patricia McBride received the arts prize.
President Barack Obama saluted the honorees Sunday at the White House before a gala performance in their honor hosted by Stephen Colbert. The show will be broadcast Dec. 30 on CBS.
At the East Room reception, Obama invoked John F. Kennedy in quoting the late president as once saying, “The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose.”
Obama later joked with Sting about their nicknames. “POTUS is a pretty good nickname, but let’s face it: It’s not as cool as Sting,” Obama said to laughter. “I’m stuck with POTUS.” The Associated Press
