The Kennedy Center Honors will be hosted this year by the great Queen Latifah.
Latifah is a great choice since she was recently inducted herself, and also because she’s a CBS star (of “The Equalizer”). She’s essentially the new LL Cool J.
This may be a historic Kennedy Center Honors since it’s likely to be the last for a while involving the White House. The Bidens will host the inductees and other guests, and then attend the show.
But once Donald Trump and co arrive, we’ll probably go back to the scenario of his first administration. No inductee will agree to be hosted, Trump will disavow the whole enterprise anyway. No one wants him sitting there with Elon Musk and Melania waving from the presidential box.
Trump’s only interest in “culture” is something that benefits or advances his personal wealth and agenda. By next year’s Honors he will have probably deported millions of people, created internment camps, slashed the NEA budget, closed libraries, and threatened most creatve people’s livelihoods.
This year’s inductees include Francis Ford Coppola, Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval, what’s left of the Grateful Dead, and a tribute to NY’s Apollo Theater. Still not in: Liza Minnelli, Jane Fonda, Denzel Washington, and so on.