From: dowdlehm@idelete.allspam.unread.com   
      
   Press Release   
      
   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   
   September 11, 2007   
      
   RECEIVE 30TH ANNUAL KENNEDY CENTER HONORS   
      
   America to Celebrate the Careers of Five Extraordinary Artists,   
   Sunday, December 2, 2007   
      
   Gala will be broadcast on CBS on Wed., Dec. 26 at 9pm (EST)   
      
   WASHINGTON, D.C.-The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts   
   announced the selection of the individuals who will receive the Kennedy   
   Center Honors of 2007. Recipients to be honored at the 30th annual   
   national celebration of the arts are: pianist Leon Fleisher, actor and   
   writer Steve Martin, singer Diana Ross, film director Martin Scorsese,   
   and songwriter Brian Wilson.   
      
   "With their extraordinary talent, creativity, and perseverance, the five   
   2007 Honorees have transformed the way we, as Americans, see, hear and   
   feel the performing arts. We will forever be thankful for the great gift   
   they have shared with us," said Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A.   
   Schwarzman. "Leon Fleisher is a consummate musician whose career is a   
   moving testament to the life-affirming power of art; Steve Martin is a   
   Renaissance comic whose talents wipe out the boundaries between artistic   
   disciplines; Diana Ross's singular, instantly recognizable voice has   
   spread romance and joy throughout the world; Martin Scorsese is a   
   visionary filmmaker and a fearless artist; and Brian Wilson led not only   
   a spectacularly popular rock group but also an era-defining   
   transformation of the sound of music."   
      
   The annual Honors Gala has become the highlight of the Washington   
   cultural year, and its broadcast on CBS, is a high point of the   
   television season. On Sunday, December 2, in a star-studded celebration   
   on the Kennedy Center Opera House stage, produced by George Stevens Jr.,   
   the 2007 Honorees will be saluted by great performers from Hollywood and   
   the arts capitals of the world. Seated with the President of the United   
   States and Mrs. Bush, the Honorees will accept the thanks of their peers   
   and fans through performances and heartfelt tributes. Past performances   
   have included massed virtuoso violins, multiple marching bands, and   
   superstars from Hollywood, Nashville, Motown, Paris, London and more,   
   all performing tributes to the Honorees.   
      
   The President and Mrs. Bush will receive the Honorees and members of the   
   Artists Committee, who nominate them, along with the Kennedy Center   
   Board of Trustees at the White House prior to the gala performance. The   
   2007 Kennedy Center Honors Gala concludes with a supper dance in the   
   Grand Foyer.   
      
   The Kennedy Center Honors will be bestowed the night before the gala on   
   Saturday, December 1, at a State Department dinner, hosted by the   
   Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. The Honors Gala will be recorded   
   for broadcast on the CBS Network on Wednesday, December 26 at 9pm (EST)   
   for the 30th consecutive year as a two-hour prime time special.   
      
   Stevens, who created the Honors in 1978 with Nick Vanoff, will produce   
   and co-write the show for the 30th year. The Honors telecast has been   
   honored with five Emmy's for Outstanding Program and is nominated again   
   this year. It has also been recognized with the Peabody Award for   
   Outstanding Contribution to Television and seven awards from the Writers   
   Guild of America.   
      
   The Boeing Company is the exclusive underwriter of the 2007 Kennedy   
   Center Honors Gala and weekend of events, which includes the honorees   
   luncheon and post-gala supper dance in the Grand Foyer.   
      
   Delta Air Lines, the official airline of the Kennedy Center Honors   
   television broadcast, will provide transportation for the performers and   
   television crew that will be coming to Washington for the Honors Gala.   
      
   The Honors recipients recognized for their lifetime contributions to   
   American culture through the performing arts- whether in dance, music,   
   theater, opera, motion pictures or television-are selected by the   
   Center's Board of Trustees. The primary criterion in the selection   
   process is excellence. The Honors are not designated by art form or   
   category of artistic achievement; the selection process, over the years,   
   has produced balance among the various arts and artistic disciplines.   
      
   Members of the Kennedy Center's national artists committee, as well as   
   past Honorees, made recommendations of possible Honorees. Among the   
   artists making recommendations were: Emanuel Ax, Dan Aykroyd, Jon Robin   
   Baitz, Dave Brubeck, Kenny Chesney, Francis Ford Coppola, Melissa   
   Etheridge, Laurence Fishburne, Renee Fleming, Anjelica Huston,   
   India.Arie, Evgeny Kissin, Rob Marshall, Peter Martins, Terrence   
   McNally, Helen Mirren, Anna Netrebko, Christopher Plummer, Nadja   
   Salerno-Sonnenberg, Catherine Zeta-Jones. Previous Kennedy Center   
   Honorees Edward Albee, Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, Sean Connery, Bill   
   Cosby, Kirk Douglas, Elton John, Mike Nichols, Smokey Robinson and   
   Steven Spielberg also made nominations.   
      
   Michael M. Kaiser, President of the Center, expressed the national   
   cultural center's gratitude to the many individuals involved in the   
   success of the Honors program. "In addition to recognizing our most   
   treasured artists, the Kennedy Center Honors also supports many of our   
   performing arts initiatives, education and public service programming,   
   and national outreach efforts."   
      
   ENDS.   
      
   --   
   To reply, replace the text after the "at" symbol with charter dot net.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)