TRUMP KISSES OFF KENNEDY GALA
Trump to skip Kennedy gala honoring nation’s top artists to avoid boycotts, boos
WASHINGTON — Well, that bridge is burned. More than three months before the Dec. 3 gala at the Kennedy Center honoring the nation’s top artists, the White House, in a pre- emptive strike Saturday, announced President Donald Trump and first lady Melania would not “participate” in any of the activities related to the gala “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.”
Trump realized months ahead of time he risked being humiliated because the honorees and others associated with the event will or have already rejected the 40- year tradition of either sitting with the president and first lady during the show, going to the pre- gala reception at the White House or be seen with him at the dinner afterwards.
A lot of show business turned their collective Democratic- tilting backs on Trump during the campaign last year — he couldn’t even book a big star for his convention or inauguration.
What’s different in the past few days — post- Charlottesville — is that people — in the arts, in corporate America, running big charities — are finally, in public, protesting Trump’s catering to those among us who spew racism, white supremacism and antiSemitism.
The honorees at the December gala, announced Aug. 3, are dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade; Cuban- American singer songwriter Gloria Estefan; rapper LL Cool J; television producer Norman Lear; and singer and record producer Lionel Richie.
The Saturday announcement comes after Lear and de Lavallade said they would not attend the reception, Estefan said she would go to the White House to discuss immigration with Trump, and Richie said on NBC’s “Today” show, “you know, I’m gonna just play it by ear.”
On Friday, every member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities quit and, in the last week, Trump disbanded his American Manufacturing Council and Strategy and Policy Forum after members started resigning. National charities have pulled fundraisers out of Trump’s Mar- a- Lago resort.
I can’t even imagine that in the wake of Trump’s pandering to the worse racists and anti- Semites among us — when he assigned equal blame for the Charlottesville violence to the neo- Nazis and those who gathered in protest — that many on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees or business moguls would want to be caught in a photo with Trump laughing it up.
The show itself is a star- studded tribute of the honorees — and it’s likely this audience would have greeted Trump with boos. The dinner afterward is as much about the arts as it is giving a nice payback to the corporations that are the major donors to the Center because it’s a great chance just to hang out with the stars.
It’s Washington’s version of the Oscars, that’s how big this Kennedy Center event is.
CBS will televise the two- hour show on Dec. 26.
The president traditionally hosts a pre- gala celebration at the White House, but now that is cancelled, too, for the first time in the history of the awards. The invitees include, besides the honorees, the cast of the show and the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.
The Chicagoans on the Kennedy Center board include former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett; former first lady Michelle Obama chief of staff Susan Sher; Bryan Traubert, the husband of former Obama Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker; and mega
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The 2017 Kennedy Center Honors Gala is chaired by Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg — with the company headquartered in Chicago.
Lear was the obvious one to quickly stand up to Trump and say no way.
Lear and his son, actor- producer Rob, are major Democratic activists.
In 1971, Lear created “All in the Family,” a taboo- breaking sitcom where the main character was Archie Bunker, who played an ignorant bigot.
That was pretend. Trump is real.
THE SHOW ITSELF IS A STAR- STUDDED TRIBUTE OF THE HONOREES — AND IT’S LIKELY THIS AUDIENCE WOULD HAVE GREETED TRUMP WITH BOOS.