Kennedy Center Gala Honors Artists

The nation’s capital rolled out the red carpet this weekend for five performers awarded the Kennedy Center Honors for a lifetime of contributions to arts and culture.

The honorees--actors Jack Nicholson and Julie Andrews; pianist Van Cliburn; composer-producer Quincy Jones; and tenor Luciano Pavarotti--were recognized by fellow celebrities during a weekend full of gala events.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in the spotlight for diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan, called this 24th annual celebration especially important. When the ruling Taliban regime crumbled, he told the honorees at the State Department dinner, Afghans relished the return of pleasures banned by the Taliban: music and the arts.

“A heart filled with music cannot be silenced,” he said.

The festivities began with the State Department black-tie dinner Saturday, continued Sunday with a White House ceremony featuring President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush and finished with the Honors Gala at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night. It will be broadcast later this month on CBS.

“You’re each here so that America can recognize your great gifts and the ways that you have used them,” Bush told the honorees.

Amid the glitter and the celebrations, the moments of levity and the tears of achievement, the personalities of the five honorees gave Washington something to talk about other than war, anthrax and military trials.

Quincy Jones

Powell witnessed how Jones, 64, uplifts those around him when the two visited South Africa in 1994.

On every street corner everyone knew who “Q” was, he said.

“I was mistaken for his bodyguard,” said Powell, who at the time had just finished his tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Among Jones’ outstanding achievements: producing the best-selling “Thriller” album for Michael Jackson and the best-selling single, “We Are the World.”

Despite 26 Grammy Awards and 76 Grammy nominations, Jones, surrounded by his children, said Saturday night that his greatest achievement was raising eight kids.

Julie Andrews

In between accepting congratulations from other acclaimed actors, Andrews displayed “Mary Poppins” charm when entertaining Jones’ two youngest children at the ceremony.

The 66-year-old actress starred in the 1965 award-winning musical “The Sound of Music” that has turned even the youngest generations into Andrews fans--apparently even the 9-month-old daughter of actress Audra McDonald.

“Julie’s voice came on the television and she stopped what she was doing,” McDonald said of her daughter. “She stared at the television. Then started to conduct Julie. When it was finished she began her patty-cake applause.”

Andrews, a winner of one Academy Award, four Golden Globes and eight Emmy Awards, said she was in a “tizzy of delight” when she heard of her nomination. “I am thrilled, just absolutely thrilled.”

Jack Nicholson

While working with Nicholson, actor Michael Douglas recalled how the actor “opens up his soul to the camera” in a way not seen by other actors. His style is unpredictable and he takes very unique chances, Douglas told the Kennedy Center crowd.

Nicholson, 64, has earned Academy Awards for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Terms of Endearment” and “As Good as It Gets.”

And on the red carpet Saturday, he said: “It just keeps on getting better and better and better.”

Singer Jimmy Buffett, who led the toast to Nicholson, described his good friend’s passions outside of work, noting that Nicholson is the best deejay for a party.

“But of course, there are the women,” Buffett said with a grin. “Most great women of our time have been passionate one way or another about Jack Nicholson.”

Luciano Pavarotti

While some of the honorees floated around the State Department lounges mingling with other performers, Pavarotti stayed put in a comfortable chair as his admirers--one after another--greeted the 66-year-old tenor with warm accolades.

With a red scarf over his black evening wear, he said: “It touched my heart that the United States president would grant me, an Italian, with this very wonderful honor here in this incredible country.”

Pavarotti was recognized for bringing opera to the popular culture with sold-out performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and worldwide tours as one of the Three Tenors.

His good friend, opera singer Sherrill Milnes, admired Pavarotti for his voice of gold, but also for his heart, quick wit and charm--especially with women.

Milnes recalled a time when a female reporter asked Pavarotti whether his voice was “kissed by God.” The lighthearted Pavarotti said, “Perhaps. But he must have have kissed you all over.”

Van Cliburn

Cliburn, 67, was one of the first Americans to “strike a blow against the Iron Curtain” not because of military might but because of his music, Powell said.

In 1958, Cliburn, a tall Texan then in his 20s, won the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow in the midst of the Cold War.

He came home to the first-ever ticker-tape parade for a musician in New York.

He was the “boy who conquered Russia and who single-handedly launched classical music to the top of the charts,” said actress Annette Benning, hostess of Saturday’s ceremonies.