And here is your host … Trump casts himself for Kennedy Center honours
The age of Donald Trump is the age of Trump's ego. Trump the president, commander-in-chief and master builder. Trump the supremo of the upcoming Olympics, football World Cup and America's 250th birthday. Trump whose self-aggrandisement is the size of a planet: on Wednesday not even the Kennedy Center's cavernous Hall of Nations could contain it.
The president announced that he will host this year's Kennedy Center Honors – after all, he used to be on The Apprentice, so how hard can it be? He unveiled this year's honourees – screened by him to veto 'wokesters' – and grumbled that he had never been one. He reminded everyone that he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Nearby, the giant bust of Kennedy may have shed a tear or two as Trump, wearing dark suit, white shirt and red tie, strode into the marble-walled, red-carpeted Hall of Nations to continue his hostile takeover of the nation's capital – and the country's cultural life.
The 100ft-high arts complex on the banks of the Potomac River and its annual arts awards might seem trivial in the scheme of Trump's authoritarian crusade. But there are few better measures of how his second term is proving more ambitious, intentional and effective than his first.
Trump 1.0 never set foot in the Kennedy Center. Each year the Honors took place without him, with recipients including his critics such as as Cher, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sally Field. And there were diverse lineups: Gloria Estefan, LL Cool J, Lionel Richie, Debbie Allen, Berry Gordy, Gladys Knight and Queen Latifah.
Trump 2.0 has been a very different proposition in his targeted approach to immigration and crime, his vendettas against political opponents and his bullying of law firms, media companies and universities. Suddenly the Kennedy Center, like the Smithsonian Institution's museums, finds itself in the line of fire of Trump's war on woke.
Like Shakespeare's Richard III, who feigns reluctance to take the throne as a tactic to appear more virtuous, Trump claimed he didn't really want to take on hosting responsibilities when his staff asked.
'I said: 'I'm the president of the United States! Are you fools, asking me to do that?' 'Sir, you'll get much higher ratings.' I said: 'I don't care, I'm president of the United States. I won't do it.''
But then, in his telling, his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, intervened. 'I said, OK, Susie, I'll do it. That's the power she's got. So I have agreed to … They're going to say: 'He insisted.' I did not insist but I think it will be quite successful actually. It's been a long time. I used to host The Apprentice finales and we did rather well with that.'
The Kennedy Center Honors were established in 1978 and recipients have included George Balanchine, Warren Beatty, Aretha Franklin, Tom Hanks, Arthur Miller, Stephen Sondheim and Barbra Streisand. Trump remarked: 'I wanted one. I was never able to get one.'
A group of Trump lackeys sitting stage left burst into laughter then realised he wasn't joking and fell silent. 'It's true, actually. I would have taken it if they would have called me. I waited and waited and waited and I said: 'To hell with it, I'll become chairman and I'll give myself an honour. Maybe next year we'll honour Trump, OK?'
All right, now that time he was joking. Wasn't he?
Trump announced a characteristically white male-heavy list for this year's honourees: actors Michael Crawford and Sylvester Stallone, singers George Strait and Gloria Gaynor, and members of the rock band Kiss. As he spoke of each, a curtain was pulled back on their photo in very retro, low-tech style.
Crawford, he noted, was born in England in 1942 and made his Broadway debut in 1967. 'I was there. I shouldn't say that but I was there. It seems like a long time ago, and he became an international sensation in the 1980s for his original portrayal of the Phantom of the Opera – one of the greatest ever, ever, ever, ever.'
It was hardly surprising from a man whose cultural tastes refuse to acknowledge the existence of the 21st century, though there was no mention of the 70s British sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em in which Crawford played accident-prone Frank Spencer, known for the catchphrase 'Ooh Betty!'
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Stallone's characters Rambo and Rocky are more Trump's style: macho, muscular, primal, violent, taking no prisoners. The kind of great white hopes that he would now like to see policing the streets of Washington. The president mused: 'Rocky, Rambo – if you did one, you're good. You do two?
'I'll never forget I was a young guy and I went to see a thing called Rambo and it had just come out. I didn't know anything about it but I was in a movie theatre – like we used to go to movie theaters a lot – and I said: 'This movie is phenomenal! What the heck?' And that turned out to be a monster.'
Trump described Stallone as one of the biggest names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame but then remembered this is supposed to be all about him. 'In fact, the only one that's a bigger name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they say, is a guy named Donald Trump. I'm on the Hollywood Walk of Fame too, if you can believe that one.'
Strait, Gaynor and Kiss met with his approval too. Trump might have stopped five wars in the past six months, by his own estimate, but he still had time to handpick the Kennedy Center honourees and make sure no agitators, dissidents or subversives slipped through the net. The role of the artist is the worship of Trump.
'I would say I was about 98% involved,' he remarked. 'They all went through me … I turned down plenty. It went too woke. I turned I had a couple of wokesters. Now, we have great people. This is very different than it used to be. Very different.'
The Oscars, he said, now gets 'lousy ratings' because 'it's all woke' and 'all they do is talk about how much they hate Trump.'
Just as he is vowing to make Washington DC beautiful again, Trump has big plans for the Kennedy Center, which at least one Republican in Congress has proposed renaming after him. Trump promised to 'fully renovate' the entire infrastructure, ripping out and replacing all the seats, and make it a 'crown jewel' of arts and culture in the US. 'The bones are so good,' he cooed.
But if his White House desecration is anything to go by, expect the Kennedy Center to become a monument to dictator chic, dripping in rococo gold and festooned with garishness. Another Kennedy quotation inscribed on the exterior marble wall says: 'This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.'
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I knew he had a few fun surprises up his sleeve but I never could have anticipated this. I have never been more obsessed with my husband.' She added: 'A year ago today I married my best friend. 'I have never been happier, never been so at peace, never been so in love. 'I am a better person because of Lamar. He brings so much laughter, happiness and fun to my life yet he also keeps me calm and grounded.' Despite the sweet gesture, the couple split three years later after constant rumours of Odom's infidelity and substance abuse issues. Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel The actress, 43, and the singer, 44, have also partaken in the vowel renewal trend, with a shot of their ceremony shared on their 10th wedding anniversary. The couple first tied the knot back in 2012 in Italy, and share two sons - Silas, 10, and Phineas, five - together. Biel took to Instagram to share share a slew of snaps of her and Timberlake together, including one from the renewal, where she wore a voluminous white dress adorned with a black bow. Justin pulled a funny face in a cream linen suit, while Jessica threw a peace sign, and captioned the shot: 'From our vow renewal this summer - in Italy where it all went down'. Posting to her grid, Jessica wrote: 'Being married to you is the adventure of a lifetime! Run it back, baby. RUN IT BACK. I love you'. The former NSYNC member wrote a sentimental note in the caption: '10 years ain't enough! You make me a better husband and father every day! I love you so much you beautiful human! Run it back!' While on Today with Hoda & Jenna, Biel said: 'It was very intimate. It was very small, a couple of our friends, and we literally barely put this thing together. 'We almost canceled it. We thought, "This is silly, are we going to feel goofy doing this?" And actually it was so moving. I felt like, "Wow, we're going to keep doing this. Look at us!" It felt really nice.' Jessica first started dating Justin in 2007, five years after the bitter collapse of his headline-grabbing relationship with Britney Spears. Justin and Jessica briefly split in 2011 but quickly reunited, and the following year they made it down the aisle in a ceremony in southern Italy. Their marriage, however, fell under searing scrutiny in November 2019 when Justin was spotted at a New Orleans bar holding hands with actress Alisha Wainwright. The pair were enjoying their off-hours from shooting a move called Palmer when the public display of affection occurred. Justin issued an Instagram apology for his 'strong lapse in judgement,' explaining that he 'drank way too much that night and I regret my behaviour.' In January 2020, an Us Weekly source claimed they were in therapy and that Justin was 'trying his hardest to prove himself' to his wife.
