40 | DECEMBER 16 • 2021 

A “NORMAL” KENNEDY 
CENTER HONORS AND A 
LAST, MOVING NOTE
The Kennedy Centers 
Honors are annually given 
to five people in the per-
forming arts for their lifetime 
contributions to American 
culture. The honorees this 
year are Lorne Michaels, 77, 
Bette Midler, 76, Motown 
Records founder Berry 
Gordy, Justino Diaz, a 
Puerto Rican opera singer, 
and famous singer/songwrit-
er Joni Mitchell. 
The Honors are a week-
end-long event that this 
year took place Dec. 5-6. 
The Honors normally 
include a dinner at the 
State Department, a pri-
vate reception at the White 
House and a Sunday eve-
ning gala public concert at 
the Kennedy Center. This 
year, the State Department 
dinner took place at the 
“more airy” Library of 
Congress. In welcoming 
remarks, Secretary of State 
Antony Blinken, 59, noted 
the vital role culture can 
play in advancing interna-
tional understanding.
 As the Washington Post 
put it: The most recent 
Honors events were a 
return to “normalcy.” The 
Honors awards began in 
1978 and, before 2017, a 
sitting president almost 
never missed an Honors 
event. However, President 
Trump chose not to attend 
any Honors event during his 
term. This wasn’t “normal,” 
and “not normal” got much 
worse in 2020-21. The 2020 
Honors events did not take 
place last December, as 
they usually do, because of 
the pandemic. The 2020 

honorees got their awards 
in a virtual event that took 
place in March 2021. 
I mention all this because 
the 2021 Honors are 
something special, and it’s 
worth watching. The Gala 
audience, which included 
many Republican attendees, 
were reportedly “giddy” 
as they got to enjoy “real” 
live entertainment from 
the Kennedy Center stage 
(saluting the honorees). The 
Post says that the 2,000 
people at the Gala show-
ered President Biden with 
standing ovations mostly 
because he was there — 
and except for face masks, 
things were “pretty normal” 
again. 
CBS will broadcast the 
Honors Gala concert on 
Wednesday, Dec. 22, at 9 
p.m. The concert is a four-
hour event that CBS edits 
down to two hours. This 
year, for the first time, the 
CBS Gala footage will also 
stream on Paramount+ 
(formerly CBS All-Access). 
I know that CBS never 
re-runs their Gala cover-
age or makes it available 
on-demand. I don’t believe 
it will be on-demand on 
Paramount+. Best bet: 
Watch live on CBS and, if 
you can, DVR record it. 

Bette Midler was feted by 
Beanie Feldstein, 28, Kate 
Baldwin and Taylor Trensch. 
They co-starred with Midler 
in her hit 2017 Broadway 
revival of Hello, Dolly! They 
took the Gala concert stage 
and sang a Midler favorite, 
“You Gotta Have Friends.” 
Goldie Hawn, 76, singer 
Melissa Manchester, 70, 
and Barbara Hershey, 
73, told warm anecdotes 
about Midler (Manchester’s 
parents were Jewish; 
Hawn’s mother was Jewish 
and Hershey’s father was 
Jewish. Hershey co-starred 
with Midler in the hit movie 
Beaches). 
 Lorne Michaels, born 
Lorne Lipowitz, co-created 
Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 
1975 and he remains its very 
much “hands-on” producer. 
Yes, some of his choices 
(guest hosts, cast members, 
etc.) have been reasonably 
criticized. However, to keep 
a hit show a hit show for 
45 years is an objectively 
remarkable record. 
At the Gala, a series of 
SNL Weekend Update 
hosts took the stage. (Kevin 
Nealon, Amy Poehler, 
Seth Meyers, Colin Jost 
and Michael Che). They 
appeared in a mock-up 
of a television set and, in 

the classic SNL way, they 
honored Michaels through 
barbed comedic comments 
about his shortcomings and 
quirks. 
Opening in theaters on 
Dec. 17 is Nightmare Alley. 
Alley is a remake of a har-
rowing 1947 film about the 
rise and gruesome fall of a 
con man. Bradley Cooper 
stars as the con man. The 
supporting cast includes 
Ron Perlman, 71, and Tim 
Blake Nelson, 57.
Shortly after Stephen 
Sondheim’s death, the 
website CinemaBlend pub-
lished a moving piece about 
Sondheim’s last communica-
tion with Steven Spielberg, 
who directed the new film 
version of West Side Story 
(Sondheim wrote the lyrics 
for the West Side songs.). 
After seeing a special pre-
view screening of the new 
West Side Story, Sondheim 
sent Spielberg a simple 
note. Spielberg explained 
that he sometimes called 
Sondheim ‘SS1’ and 
Sondheim sometimes called 
Spielberg ‘SS2’ (Think about 
their initials for a second).
The note read: “SS2, you 
done good buddy boy. — 
SS1.”
Spielberg went on to say 
that he was heartbroken 
and that during the pan-
demic SS1 and SS2 became 
great friends. They bonded 
over the making of the new 
West Side Story and through 
their mutual love of older 
movies. During the pandem-
ic and quarantine, Spielberg 
said, they spent a year-and-
a-half exchanging films with 
each other and wrote many 
long emails to each other 
about the films. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

Lorne Michaels

ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS 

Bette Midler

ALAN LIGHT

