Washington hosts Hollywood elite for Kennedy Honours
From Joel Rothstein

WASHINGTON—Washington’s elite mingled with artistic icons at the Kennedy Centre Honours on Saturday, paying tribute to five people for their lifetime contributions to the arts and American culture.
At a dinner for 250 hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, even many familiar Washington heads were turning as the 29th annual honours were awarded to movie mogul Steven Spielberg, country singer Dolly Parton, musical theatre composer and stage producer Andrew Lloyd Webber, conductor Zubin Mehta and singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson.
Parton bounded through the State Department entrance hall as if she was ready to grab a microphone and start singing.
“This is like hillbillies in the city,” she said as she admired the desk of Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president, on display in one of the historic building’s ornate halls.
Spielberg, a well-known political foe of the current administration, emphasized the non-political nature of the event a day before he and the other honourees are expected to meet President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, at the White House. Spielberg said such disagreements would “remain in suspended animation for 48 hours.”
Rice told guests that her first date was a Smokey Robinson concert but that her father insisted on joining the date as a chaperon, she said, out of concern that “there was too much power in Smokey’s soul.”
Per tradition, the Kennedy Centre selected this year’s honourees based on the recommendations from a diverse nominating committee whose members range from comedic actor Dan Aykroyd to opera singer Beverly Sills.
London native Webber wrote theatre masterpieces including “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Cats.” Parton, one of 12 children born to a Tennessee sharecropper, had more than 20 gold or platinum albums, appeared in 15 movies and has been nominated for an Oscar, an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and countless other awards.
Robinson earned his place in American musical history writing songs and performing hits like “The Tracks of My Tears” during the heyday of Detroit’s Motown music scene. Mehta, the first Indian to receive the Kennedy Centre honours, passed on a career in medicine to grow from his Mumbai roots and become music director of the New York Philharmonic.
Spielberg’s movies, including “Jaws,” the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” series, “E.T.,” “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan,” have made him one of the most influential directors and producers in Hollywood history.
The Kennedy Centre Honors weekend was to conclude on Sunday with Bush hosting an afternoon reception at the White House followed by an evening performance at the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. The show will be broadcast on the CBS television network on December 26.