Kennedy Center Honors Features Salutes To Francis Ford Coppola, The Grateful Dead And Bonnie Raitt — And A Sendoff To Joe Biden

deadline.com:

At Sunday’s Kennedy Center Honors, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro each appeared on stage to give special tributes to Francis Ford Coppola, while Al Pacino called him a trailblazer willing to break the first rule of Hollywood: Never put your own money in your movie projects.

Julia Louis Dreyfus said that when honoree Bonnie Raitt “sings and plays, you know instantly that it’s Bonnie Raitt. It’s just all red hair and no bulls—.” After testimonials for honoree The Grateful Dead from figures like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, David Letterman popped out of a prop Deadhead’s VW van and declared, “I’m so f—ed up.” Then Letterman threw in a quip about the trepidation of what’s ahead. “I was talking to people backstage, and they are going to get as many of these honors in place now before the inauguration,” Letterman said, as the audience clapped and cheered.

His comment was a reference to incoming president Donald Trump who, although he was not named, certainly was on the minds of many of the politicos, entertainers, media personalities and government VIPs for this year’s annual event.

That was evident in the loud ovation attendees gave to Trump’s successor and now predecessor, Joe Biden, who in the last four years restored the presidential traditions surrounding the ceremony, including annual attendance and the staging of a pre-event White House reception. “There is no law that requires the president of the United States to host the Kennedy Center honors at the White House or attend this, but for four years, President Biden and Dr.