Rainbow lanyards — but you guys make these cool. (afp)
Tonight was the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual lifetime achievement celebration this year honoring Dave Brubeck, Mel Brooks, Grace Bumbry, Robert DeNiro and Bruce Springsteen.
About 300 entertainment luminaries were at the White House for the after-party, including Jack Black, Alan Alda (really?), Matthew Broderick, Martin Scorsese, Jon Stewart, Sting, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Harvey Keitel and Carol Burnett, among many others.
The president noted in his remarks that DeNiro out of character doesn’t say much. Recalling some of his darker roles — in “Taxi Driver,” “Cape Fear,” “The Deer Hunter” and more, Obama said:
“Let’s hope that Martin Scorsese was kidding when he said that Robert is ‘full of something that he wanted to express,'” Obama said, adding, “Don’t worry, we did a vet on him before he came in tonight.”
DeNiro “is a man, famously, of few words off the screen,” Obama said. “And I can attest to this.”
Paying tribute to Springsteen, Obama noted the 60 year-old rocker still fills stadiums, crowd surfs and wins Grammy awards.
“It’s been a long road from that stage at Stone Pony in Asbury Park to this stage today, but this much we know — after more than 30 years and 120 million albums sold, Bruce Springsteen is still one ‘cool rockin’ Daddy,'” Obama said.
