Pelosi gets rock star treatment
THE audience at Clive Davis’s whitehot gala included Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, but it was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who got the most requests to take a selfie.
Pelosi received rock star treatment on Saturday night from attendees at the annual pre-Grammy event, which also featured a stunning tribute to the late Aretha Franklin, an artist Davis worked closely with for decades.
Pelosi’s sarcastic handclap and smirk to President Donald Trump at his State of the Union address went viral last week and launched hundreds of memes. So when Davis announced that she was in the audience – Pelosi has attended in the past – she received a standing ovation, while some people even imitated her now-famous handclap.
As she tried to exit, people asked to take selfies, almost creating a line as Pelosi smiled through them all.
Celebrities attending the event at the Beverly Hilton included Apple’s Tim Cook, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, recent Super Bowl champ Julian Edelman, Wolfgang Puck, Earth, Wind & Fire, Dionne Warwick, Kathy Griffin, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Calvin Klein, Angela Bassett, Berry Gordy, Fred Armisen, George Clinton and Darren Criss.
The night closed with a rousing tribute to Franklin, who died in August. R&B singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan stunned with her renditions of Call Me and I Knew You Were Waiting, then joined by Rob Thomas, who held his own onstage.
Rapper Travis Scott, nominated for three Grammys, kicked off the night with the hit Goosebumps. Before performing Sickomode, which reached No 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart last year, he told the audience: “I only came to rage. Don’t be scared to stand up now,” Scott’s DJ said.
Davis’s event was also attended by James Brolin, Beck, Joe Walsh, Alice Cooper, A$AP Rocky, Diane Warren, LL Cool J, David Foster, Miguel, Chick Corea, Maren Morris, Rae Sremmurd, Ryan Tedder, Max Martin, Courtney B. Vance, LA Reid, Dua Lipa, Ciara and Russell Wilson.