Bush honors arts medalists

The Obamas aren’t the only White House visitors getting face time with the president in recent days: George W. Bush honored the nine recipients of the 2008 National Medal of the Arts, managed by the National Endowment for the Arts, at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Monday.

Among those presented with the medals by the president and First Lady Laura Bush were Los Angeles comic book writer and producer Stan Lee, the man behind Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men, and Academy Award-winning songwriting brothers Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman, who wrote the music for several Disney films, including “The Jungle Book” and “The Aristocats,” and won two Oscars for “Mary Poppins.”

Also receiving arts medals were actress Olivia de Havilland; the Fisk Jubilee singers of Nashville, Tenn.; the Ford’s Theatre Society, theater and museum, Washington, D.C.; jazz musician Hank Jones, who was named NEA Jazz Master in 1989; the Jose Limon Dance Foundation, company and institute, New York City; granite sculptor Jesus Moroles of Rockport, Texas; and the Presser Foundation, music patron, of Haverford, Pa.

-- Diane Haithman