Morgan, Babs, the Who Up for Kennedy Honors
Jason Kempin/Getty Images, David Westing/Getty Images, Frank Foden/ZumaPress.com
This year's roster of Kennedy Center Honorees reads like a literal who's Who.
Morgan Freeman, Barbra Streisand, Who rockers Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, honky tonk king George Jones and choreographer extraordinaire Twyla Tharp are the select six chosen to receive this year's presidential honor come Dec. 7.
All honorees were chosen and will be recognized for their lifetime contribution to American culture through the performing arts and were selected by the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees.
"Morgan Freeman's name is synonymous with great screen acting and is one of the most respected performers in American cinema," Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman said in running down the recipients. "Barbra Streisand's trailblazing career in music, theater, films and television is one of the most thrilling spectacles of our culture."
As for the rest of the honorees, the praise was equally as effusive.
"As the heart and soul of the seminal band The Who, songwriters and singers Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey transformed the sights and sounds of rock and roll," the chairman said.
Schwarzman went on to call enduring country singer Jones "instrumental" and "a vital force in American life," while declaring Tharp "an American original...who has indelibly enriched the vocabulary of modern dance, contemporary ballet and the Broadway musical."
As always, the 31st Annual Kennedy Center Honors will be presided over by current White House denizens George and Laura Bush and will conclude with a gala dinner hosted by Condoleezza Rice.
The ceremony will air sometime in December on CBS.
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