“Star Wars” creator George Lucas entered the pantheon of United States cultural icons as he received a prestigious Kennedy Center Lifetime Artistic Achievement.
Advertisement
President Obama welcomed the 2015 Kennedy Center honorees to the White House Sunday.
But Lucas has described his relationship to Star Wars as a divorce on several occasions, so aside from the ensuing unfortunate imagery of such a marriage, it looks like it’s an amicable parting of ways. This year’s other honorees are singer-songwriter Carole King, actress and singer Rita Moreno, conductor Seiji Ozawa and actress Cicely Tyson. And host Stephen Colbert, back for his second year, opened by acknowledging all the attendees, including “the small handful of you who aren’t running for president”. After giving his urgent and serious speech, the president was rushed to the Kennedy Center and arrived at about 8:30 p.m. post intermission, reported Billboard. It ended with a laser-filled tribute to “Star Wars’ that plowed new ground for the Honors event”.
“I wanted to be there to help celebrate your Kennedy Center honor in person, but hey, since you invented video voicemail, I don’t have to be”, said Fisher. “I’ll go my way and I let them go their way”, he said before seeing the film.
The 83-year-old first dazzled fans on the screen adaptation of “West Side Story” before going on to win all four of the biggest prizes in show business over her career – the Oscar, the Tony, two Emmys and a Grammy. In another, Obama called Lucas, 71, “a vanguard of new Hollywood”.
Steven Spielberg appeared in person to compare George to well-known inventors, saying, “He’s a pathfinder and a pioneer like (Thomas) Edison and (Alexander Graham) Bell and (Nikola) Tesla and (Steve) Jobs…” At 90, she’s starring on Broadway alongside James Earl Jones in The Gin Game. I guess it’s one of those typical situations where you see your ex in a new light, and suddenly they seem great.
Obama may have made it, but one group of honorees – the Eagles – couldn’t come, citing singer Glenn Frey’s health issues.
Advertisement
Aretha Franklin brought the house down in her closing performance of the song she immortalized, “Natural Woman”. The event will be broadcast December 29 on CBS.
