AFP

Hollywood’s finest joined politicos including President Joe Biden for a rare night of Washington glitz Sunday, celebrating the newest Kennedy Center honorees, including George Clooney and U2.

Soul legend Gladys Knight, along with Cuban-born American composer Tania Leon and contemporary Christian pop artist Amy Grant rounded out the 45th annual class receiving the highest US arts honor, after the elite group of stars enjoyed a special weekend in the American capital honoring their illustrious careers.

During the glamorous main event at the Kennedy Center — Washington’s performing arts complex that serves as a living monument to slain president John F. Kennedy — the inductees were honored with seats in the opera house’s presidential box.

They joined the president and first lady as well as the vice president and second gentleman, along with other politicians including Nancy Pelosi and her husband, who was making a public appearance weeks after he was violently attacked and hospitalized when an intruder looking for the congresswoman broke into their California home.

Clooney — accompanied by his human rights lawyer wife Amal Clooney, who stunned in a glittering silver gown — told journalists on the red carpet that the event, which he had grown up watching on television in small-town Kentucky, was “exciting.”

Speaking at the traditional State Department dinner one night prior, Clooney, 61, joked that during his extensive travel, both as an artist and as a humanitarian, he was told one universal truth: “You sucked at Batman.”

The self-deprecating celebrity has an impressive list of films to his name, as an actor and as director and producer — “Michael Clayton,” “Syriana” and “Ocean’s Eleven” among them.

“You must be someone pretty special in the arts, Mr. Clooney,” joked Sesame Street children’s TV icon Big Bird, a fellow Kennedy Center inductee.

Julia Roberts donned a ballroom gown adorned with images of Clooney, her longtime friend and frequent collaborator, whom she called “the best combination of a gentleman and playmate.”

“Not only is he handsome, and talented in all mediums he chooses to tackle, he is profoundly present and attentive to the world around him,” Roberts said of the actor. 

Roberts, along with Matt Damon, Richard Kind and Don Cheadle both razzed and praised Clooney before the beloved actor’s father Nick delivered a touching speech of his own.

– Trump jabs –

Eddie Vedder of rock band Pearl Jam led a rollicking tribute to U2’s vast songbook, singing the hit “Elevation” in his signature power warble, later bringing down the house with the ballad “One.” 

And Ukrainian singer Jamala joined Brandi Carlile and Hozier for a rendition of the U2 track “Walk On,” in support of Ukraine’s ongoing fight against Russia.

Actor Sean Penn also praised bandmembers Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr, calling them “great musical poets for the ages” who manage to stay “consistently relevant” despite nearly half-a-century in the industry.

And Sacha Baron Cohen — in character as his darkly humorous Borat — delivered a comedic tribute to the band that drew laughs, raised eyebrows and had actor Roberts cracking up as he twistedly speared Kanye West’s recent outbursts of anti-Semitism and pretended to mistake Biden to ex-president Donald Trump.

“Your pretty orange skin has become pale,” he said to Biden, as First Lady Jill burst into laughter.

– Powerful women –

Empress of Soul Knight earned heartfelt accolades including from LL Cool J, who praised her as foundational across genres including gospel, country, rock and hip hop.

“I once heard Gladys sing the ABCs and I thought I was in church — true story,” the rapper told the audience.

Singers Ariana DeBose, Mickey Guyton and Garth Brooks delivered heart-pounding versions of some of her most beloved songs, including the standard “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-award winning Leon, 79, has already won numerous recognitions for her pioneering, sweeping compositions and chamber works that followed her immigration to the United States from Cuba as a refugee at age 24.

The moving program honoring her life’s work brought the artist — herself a regular performer at the Kennedy Center — to tears.

Speaking prior to the show on the red carpet, Leon told AFP she was pleased the Kennedy Center was recognizing types of classical music outside the Western-oriented understanding of the genre.

“There’s many, many classical pieces in the world, of different nations or difficult cultural backgrounds,” she said.

She voiced delight at having visited the White House, describing to journalists an endearing anecdote of the president showing her the woodwork on his enormous desk.

And stars including Sheryl Crow and the country supergroup the Highwomen — comprised of Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires — turned out to honor Grant.

The 62-year-old Grammy winner is the first contemporary Christian star the Kennedy Center has ever inducted, and said “never in my wildest dreams” did she envision receiving the honor.

Can a business owner cite her religious convictions in declining to provide service to a same-sex couple?

The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court is to examine the question on Monday in a case that closely resembles one from just a few years ago, pitting religious liberty and free speech rights against anti-discrimination laws.

In June 2018, the nation’s highest court partially ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who had refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.

The latest case involves a suit filed by Lorie Smith, owner of 303 Creative, a website design company also in Colorado.

Smith has said that as a devout Christian she cannot produce wedding websites for same-sex couples because it would be “inconsistent” with her religious beliefs.

Colorado’s anti-discrimination law prohibits businesses from refusing service to someone on the basis of sexual orientation. An appeals court ruled against Smith and she appealed to the Supreme Court.

– ‘To speak or stay silent’ –

In accepting the case, the court said it would examine whether Colorado’s law “to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment.”

In their brief to the court, lawyers for Smith said she is “willing to create custom websites for anyone, including those who identify as LGBT, provided their message does not conflict with her religious views.”

“Forcing artists like painters, photographers, writers, graphic designers and musicians to speak messages that violate their deeply held beliefs fails to comport with the First Amendment’s promise of ‘individual dignity and choice,'” they added.

Attorneys for Colorado said the law “simply requires that, once a business offers a product or service to the public, the business sells it to all.

“The company can define its service however it wants — including offering only websites that include biblical quotes describing marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” they said.

“But the company must sell whatever it offers to customers regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation or other protected characteristic,” they said.

– ‘Replay of Masterpiece Cakeshop’ –

David Cole, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the latest case is a “replay of Masterpiece Cakeshop,” the earlier case involving the baker.

“If the courts were to recognize a First Amendment right of the businesses that sell expressive services to discriminate, then architects could refuse to design homes for Black families,” Cole said.

“Bakeries could refuse to make custom birthday cakes for Muslim children. Florists could refuse to provide flowers for a gay person’s funeral.”

In the previous case, the justices voted 7-2 that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had displayed anti-religious hostility toward the baker, thus violating his constitutional rights.

The court, however, did not squarely address the issue of whether a business can decline to serve gays and lesbians on religious grounds.

The Supreme Court has undergone a radical transformation since that ruling, with two conservative justices nominated by Donald Trump replacing two liberal justices, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority.

Trump’s Republican administration defended the position of the baker in the 2018 case, while this time the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is backing Colorado and its anti-discrimination laws.

The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its ruling before the end of June.

Film icon George Clooney and soul legend Gladys Knight are among an elite circle of stars receiving honors at Washington’s Kennedy Center Sunday in the presence of President Joe Biden.

Hollywood A-listers and Washington politicos will also fete Irish rockers U2, Cuban-born US composer Tania Leon and contemporary Christian pop artist Amy Grant at the annual gala, a rare night of red carpet glamour in the US capital.

Biden will be joined by his wife Jill along with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff in the opera house’s presidential box for the glittering celebration of one of the country’s highest arts awards that’s now in its 45th year.

Last winter, Biden returned presidential tradition to the high-wattage awards program — the first time a sitting president had appeared at the event in five years.

Donald Trump opted out during his presidency, after several of the honored artists threatened to boycott the gala in his first year in office if the bombastic, divisive Republican were present.

Sunday’s event promises a slate of star-studded tributes to those being inducted at the Kennedy Center, Washington’s performing arts complex that serves as a living monument to slain president John F. Kennedy.

It comes on the heels of another highlight of the capital’s holiday social season, a lavish state dinner hosted by the Bidens in honor of visiting French leader Emmanuel Macron.

– The inductees –

Prior to Sunday evening’s red carpet, the honorees and their families were scheduled to attend a private White House reception with the Bidens and other distinguished guests.

That follows a State Department dinner for the honored artists on Saturday.

And the weekend’s main event was to include performances from fellow superstars paying homage to this year’s inductees, a show set for broadcast on December 28 on US television network CBS.

Clooney, the revered actor and humanitarian who broke out in the 1990s on the television show “ER,” was expected to be among the red carpet favorites along with his wife Amal, a human rights lawyer.

The 61-year-old Oscar winner is known for films including “The Descendants,” “Syriana” and the “Ocean’s Eleven” series, and also has a number of directing and producing credits to his name.

“Growing up in a small town in Kentucky I could never have imagined that someday I’d be the one sitting in the balcony at the Kennedy Center Honors,” he said in a statement. “To be mentioned in the same breath with the rest of these incredible artists is an honor.”

“Midnight Train to Georgia” singer Knight, 78, echoed the sentiment, saying she’s “humbled beyond words to be included amongst this prestigious group of individuals, both past and present.”

“The Kennedy Center’s commitment to the arts is unparalleled and I am so very grateful for this moment,” said the artist dubbed “The Empress of Soul.”

U2, the rock band that’s sold some 170 million albums worldwide, accepts the award after winning 22 Grammys and putting out powerful tracks including “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”

The Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-award winning Leon, 79, has already won most recognitions available to her for her pioneering, sweeping compositions and chamber works.

She arrived stateside at age 24 as a refugee, a budding pianist who went on to shape the sound of American classical music, blending traditional elements with modern infusions of the Cuban folk rhythms of her youth.

And Grant, 62, is the first Christian music artist to ever go platinum, and has earned six Grammy awards.

She is the first contemporary Christian star the Kennedy Center has ever inducted, and said “never in my wildest dreams” did she envision receiving the honor.

“Through the years, I’ve watched so many of my heroes serenaded by colleagues and fellow artists, always moved by the ability of music and film to bring us together and to see the best in each other,” Grant said in a statement.

“Thank you for widening the circle to include all of us.”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” saw weekend ticket sales drop to an estimated $17.6 million but still extended its rule of the North American box office for a fourth week, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.

The Disney/Marvel sequel had taken in nearly $46 million for the previous Friday-through-Sunday period. Still, its domestic total has now reached an impressive $393.7 million on top of $339 million in international ticket sales.

Universal’s new holiday-timed “Violent Night” placed second for the weekend at $13.3 million, “a solid opening for an action comedy,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. 

David Harbour of “Stranger Things” fame stars as a cranky, sledgehammer-wielding Santa who comes to the rescue when bad guys invade a rich family’s home on Christmas Eve. Gross said the film should play well until the December 16 release of much-anticipated “Avatar: The Way of Water.”

Disney’s computer-animated sci-fi film “Strange World” claimed third place while taking in just $4.9 million. Given its $180 million production budget, “the movie could lose more than $100 million,” according to HollywoodReporter.com.

In fourth was Searchlight’s horror-comedy “The Menu,” at $3.6 million. Ralph Fiennes plays a celebrity chef who serves up some dark surprises.

And in fifth was Sony’s “Devotion,” an action movie about two US fighter pilots during the Korean War, at $2.8 million. 

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“I Heard the Bells” ($1.8 million)

“Black Adam” ($1.7 million)

“The Fabelmans” ($1.3 million)

“Bones and All” ($1.2 million)

“Ticket to Paradise” ($850,000)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed Sunday to oppose Israeli settlements or annexation in the West Bank, but promised to judge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming government by actions and not personalities.

Netanyahu is expected to return to power after sealing a coalition deal with the extreme-right movements including Religious Zionism, which will be given a post in charge of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Speaking to J Street, a progressive pro-Israel US advocacy group, Blinken offered congratulations to the veteran Israeli leader, who has clashed with previous Democratic administrations in Washington.

“We will gauge the government by the policies it pursues rather than individual personalities,” Blinken said.

But he said President Joe Biden’s administration would work “relentlessly” to preserve a “horizon of hope,” however dim, for the creation of a Palestinian state.

“We will also continue to unequivocally oppose any acts that undermine the prospects of a two-state solution including but not limited to settlement expansion, moves toward annexation of the West Bank, disruption to the historic status quo of holy sites, demolitions and evictions, and incitement to violence,” Blinken said.

Blinken said that the Biden administration will insist on “core democratic principles including respect to the rights of LGBTQ people and the equal administration of justice for all citizens of Israel.”

The far-right groups in Netanyahu’s coalition will include Noam, whose leader Avi Maoz is staunchly opposed to LGBTQ rights.

Netanyahu quickly said that Jerusalem’s Pride march will continue, contradicting Maoz who has vowed to cancel it.

Religious Zionism’s leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is expected to have a key role, is a staunch advocate of Jewish settlements and used to hang in his living room a portrait of Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers at a Hebron mosque in 1994.

The November 1 election was Israel’s fifth in less than four years and came after the collapse of a motley coalition that tried to keep out the scandal-plagued Netanyahu.