Robert Ne Niro took the stage at the Kennedy Center on Sunday and, looking out at the balcony box where honoree was sitting, told him of his career, “I had no idea you had done so much. And you’ve done it all is such a relatively short amount of time. You’re only 75. That means you’re just about six years away from being the perfect age to be elected president.”
The joke got some of the biggest audience cheers of the night — and a laugh from President Joe Biden, 81, embarking on a re-election campaign where his chronological advantage is, based on polls, top of mind to voters and the source of some doubts.
It was also one of a few references to age throughout Sunday evening’s Kennedy Center Honors which, in addition to Crystal, honored opera singer Renée Fleming, hip hop star and actress Queen Latifah, singer Dionne Warwick and singer-songwriter Barry Gibb.
The event, which will air on CBS on Dec. 27, regularly draws the highest echelon’s of D.C.’s power structure, not just the president and first lady but Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Sonia Sotomayor (also getting many cheers), Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell, in addition to network news anchors, senators and representatives as well as governors and ambassadors.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that, amazingly enough, this was his first time attending the ceremony — largely to support fellow New Yorker Crystal. “His show on Broadway — he talked about his father and it reminded me of my father, because I never got to see my father because he was working overtime,” Schumer said.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that this was probably her 30th. The new House speaker, Mike Johnson, did not attend, but Pelosi wasn’t going to criticize the no-show. “I have no idea. I don’t know what his schedule is and what competition for his time is. I’m just happy to be here.”
Among the highlights was Lin-Manuel Miranda doing his own rendition of a Billy Crystal-like Oscar medley, first to You started on Soap, the future had hope, but then Rabbit Test, it got you depressed, the audience said, nope.
To My Favorite Things, Miranda continued: Comic Relief lets you show off your talents, riding a horse like a bat and Jack Palance.
Rob Reiner, who directed Crystal in This is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally, said, Listen, there’s a lot of reasons we love Billy. We love him because he makes us laugh. We love him because he’s human. And we can see ourselves in him. And we love him because he has a big heart and he lets us into that heart on the stage, on television and film.”
He credited Crystal with writing “what I believe is the funniest line in all of movie history.” That is in When Harry Met Sally Katz’s Deli scene, where Sally (Meg Ryan) demonstrates how women can fake an orgasm. The woman at the next table says, “I’ll have what she’s having.” The woman was played by Reiner’s mother, Estelle.
On a recreated Katz’s Deli said, Ryan appeared, and said to the audience, “I’m surprised they even let me back in this place,” then quipping, “The scene came really naturally to me…I’ve actually never been around anyone who makes faking an orgasm easier.”
Also appearing in the Crystal tribute were Jay Leno, Bob Costas and Whoopi Goldberg, while De Niro called Crystal “one of our best actors.” De Niro also dropped a couple f-bombs, including when he attempted a rendition of It Had To Be You.
During the tribute to Warwick, performances included Cynthia Erivo singing Alfie and Mickey Guyton sang Then Came You. Saturday Night Live cast regular Ego Nwodim recalled playing Warwick in a skit in which she made a cameo. She noted that Warwick was “never at a loss for words” and had an “ability to tell it like it is” — especially on Twitter. Debbie Allen credited Warwick with breaking barriers and glass ceilings. “Your voice was the soundtrack of our lives,” noting that Warwick was the first African American vocalist to win a Grammy in the pop category. Herbie Hancock and Clive Davis also appeared.
Queen Latifah was honored by Kerry Washington, Missy Elliott and The Clark Sisters, while four-year-old rapper Van Van, who became a bit of a viral sensation earlier this year at age 4, told her, “Thank you for being an inspiration.”
Fleming was feted by Christine Baranski, Tituss Burgess and Sigourney Weaver, who noted the opera star’s work on music’s connection to health and neuroscience, as well as arts education, “and it all springs from that amazing voice.”
In a ceremony at the State Department on Saturday, Gibb marveled at being in the “corridors of power,” while mentioning two words that have helped guide him in recent years: Kindness and understanding. “And we seem to be losing that in the rest of the world. We need to grab it back,” he said. He also paid tribute to his late brothers in the Bee Gees, Robin and Maurice, and brother Andy. “We were a family of music and a family of love,” he said.
Gibb’s tribute was the finale of the night, with such figures as Barbra Streisand and Lionel Ritchie appearing via video, along with Paul McCartney, who expressed some jealousy over How Deep Is Your Love. “I should have written it.”
Also appearing were Michael Buble and Ben Platt, who noted that when there was an anti-disco backlash in the late 1970s — “straight people can be very annoying” — Gibb just kept going on with his prolific career. Steve Gibb, his son, said that there was “a special alchemy when you have three brothers harmonizing together.” Under a giant disco ball, Ariana DeBose performed a rousing medley that included How Deep is Your Love and Stayin Alive, ending with a spray of confetti over the audience.
More to come.
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