Paul McCartney, Liz Taylor on Kennedy Center List

Conductor James Levine, musician Paul McCartney, actors James Earl Jones and Elizabeth Taylor, and actress-dancer Chita Rivera will receive the Kennedy Center Honors of 2002 for their lifetime contributions to the performing arts, the center announced Tuesday.

The 25th annual honorees will be celebrated Dec. 8 at a gala performance at the Opera House at Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The gala will feature artists from around the world, with the president and the first lady in attendance. The honors will be bestowed the night before the gala at a State Department dinner hosted by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Rivera, who appears on stage through Sept. 1 at downtown’s Mark Taper Forum in Federico Garcia Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba,” said in a telephone interview Tuesday that she found out she would be on the honoree list from her brother, who is her manager. “I thought he was joking,” she said with a laugh. “Dancers are so used to being workhorses--it’s all over those T-shirts: ‘Shut up and dance.’ You are stopped dead in your tracks when something like this happens. I’ve stood on that stage so many times, performing in honor of my peers, with tears in my eyes, being so proud for them. It’s wonderful, knowing that this time I’ll be standing there, next to the president.”

Jones, who has attended several Kennedy Center Honors events as a guest, joked that at 71 he is the “senior in this group” of honorees. “I can’t compare it to anything else. There’s no gathering like it, it is attended by every level of society and every level of government,” Jones said.

“It’s a great honor to be amongst such talented and prestigious company,” said Taylor through spokesman Warren Cowan. “I’m thrilled and thank all who made this possible.”

The honors gala will be broadcast on CBS as a two-hour prime time special in December, with date and time to be announced. George Stevens Jr., who created the honors in 1978 with Nick Vanoff, will produce and co-write the show for the 25th consecutive year. Don Mischer will produce with Stevens.

The honorees are selected by the Kennedy Center board of trustees along with an artists committee and past honorees. Among those making this year’s recommendations: Edward Albee, Jason Alexander, Carol Burnett, Johnny Cash, Terrence McNally, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Arturo Sandoval, Stephen Sondheim and Robin Williams.