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Maybe David Letterman will talk about it when President Obama appears on The Late Show September 18th. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced the recipients this morning. Letterman joins actor Dustin Hoffman, the rock band Led Zeppelin, blues great Buddy Guy, and ballerina Natalia Marakova as the 2012 Annual Kennedy Center Honorees. While Led Zeppelin is being honored as a band, keyboardist/bassist John Paul Jones, guitarist Jimmy Page, and singer Robert Plant will each receive a medallion. The night before the gala, Secretary of State 
Hillary Clinton will host a State Department dinner for the seven individuals who then sit with President Obama and First Lady Michelle during the December 4th ceremony. The President and Mrs Obama will receive the Honorees and members of the Artists Committee who nominate them, along with the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, at the White House prior to the gala.
For the 35th year, the honors will be broadcast by CBS as a two-hour primetime special on December 26th. George Stevens Jr, who co-created the honors in 1978, returns to produce and co-write. He was just tapped to receive an Honorary Oscar this year.
“With their extraordinary talent, creativity and tenacity, the seven 2012 Kennedy Center Honorees have contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world,” said Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein.
“Buddy Guy is a titan of the blues and has been a tremendous influence on virtually everyone who has picked up an electric guitar in the last half century; Dustin Hoffman’s unyielding commitment to the wide variety of roles he plays has made him one of the most versatile and iconoclastic actors of this or any other generation; David Letterman is one of the most influential personalities in the history of television, entertaining an entire generation of late-night viewers with his unconventional wit and charm; Natalia Makarova’s profound artistry has ignited the stages of the world’s greatest ballet companies and continues to pass the torch to the next generation of dancers; and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant transformed the sound of rock and roll with their lyricism and innovative song structures, infusing blues into the sound of rock and roll and laying the foundation for countless rock bands.”
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Letterman, really, what are his cultural contributions? I must have slept through his inocuous attempts at humor.
That’s what passes for “culture” in this great (lol) country.
Letterman: “his unconventional wit and charm”:
…stolen directly, and ‘in toto’, from Steve
Allen. He hasn’t been amusing in 20 years.
Steve Allen is more amusing, and he’s dead.
Led Zepplin certainly deserves this honor….Hoffman…acceptable….Letterman must have bought his way in. He’s not funny…he’s pathetic…couldn’t you just give him a participation ribbon?
give dave one of the famous “canned hams”
Zepplin does NOT deserve this. Look for the videos that document many, many examples of out right theft of lyrics and music. Cut and paste: Led Zepplin plagiarism.
Do not have a problem with Zeppelin as a potential honoree, but do have a problem that one of America’s and the world’s greatest bands who still draws crowds whenever they tour has not been honored.
Where are the Eagles?
Seems like the entertainment industry deserves all of Obama’s attention. Could it be he is going for the monies that they will probably put in his re-election bid. Or is there a sucking up noise in the background. Guess I just don’t get what you have to do to receive a national honor.
Hopefully, this means that Letterman is retiring. Even the nanoseconds that I might flip past his program are boring – if not offensive.
TIME FOR LETTERMAN—NO TIME FOR NETANYAHU
WHAT HAPPENED TO AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY?
The president is allegedly besieged by such a busy schedule he cannot make allowance for a meeting with Netanyahu in New York, yet he finds time to appear on the David Letterman show. If it looks like a deliberate snub it probably is one. Romney has taken time to counsel with the Prime Minister of Israel by visiting him in the country. Foreign policy is being less than supervised by the top U.S. executive. Yet the Letterman show will be covered. Mistaken priority?
Alan G Phillips, Sr
Netanyahu is not even in NYC at the same time as Obama… THAT is why they are not meeting… it has nothing to do with snubbing him.
you completely missed the point.
Letterman is a bitter, washed up old comic with nothing new to offer except the same old dribble. Makes sense the Kennedy Center would honor him.
And NEXT…..Letterman get the Nobel Peace Prize!
Well after giving one to someone on the basis of what he might do (and never did) I wouldn’t be surprised.
Took the words right out of my mouth…
What has David Letterman every done except make fun of everything political on the right? Cultural? This says more about the Kennedy Center than about the lowlife Letterman!
What a load of horseshit. He spent years making jokes about Bill and Hillary.
Dustin Hoffman? Nice timing here. If it wasn’t for his voice work in Kung Fu Panda, and a lucky break in a Fockers movie, this guy hasn’t had any success in roughly 15 years! Who does he know? And Letterman, c’mon! “Hey, Paul” and a quirky face worked in the 80s!
David Letterman??????????????Performing Arts?????????????Our bar has been set low…..I’d feel bad if I was Led Zeppelin or Dustin Hoffman.
i am thrilled to see that the center is honoring dustin hoffman and buddy guy even someone like natalia makarova even led zeppelin.but my complaint is the snubbing of jerry lewis for that jerk david letterman,i want to why is mr lewis not that important to get one.he is 86 years of age.
Jerry Lewis; indeed, yes. Good Point.
I’ll agree with you wingers on that one – Lewis does not get the credit he deserves for his lifetime of work.
“their lyricism and innovative song structures” ??
Google: Led Zeppelin stolen songs
Theft, plagiarism, rip offs… call it what you want. You’ll never look at L.Z. the same way again.
Led Zeppelin created a sound and template that sounded nothing like their contemporaries and is still influencing bands today, period. So their first couple of albums were heavy on older blues lyrics, so what. This internet “gotcha” crap about Zeppelin is moronic, McCartney has said the Beatles “were the biggest thieves of all time”, this has always happened and always will. An unintended but wonderful side effect is that guys like Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters made so much more money than they would have thanks to white suburban kids like me getting into their music thanks to Zeppelin.
Get over it. And how great that Jimmy Page gets honored with Buddy Guy? I bet he’s thrilled.
So Sir McCartney’s statement about his band makes it OK. This isn’t just a problem with one or two early songs. I’d love it if Buddy Guy nailed these thieves.
Every act in the ’60s and ’70s recorded cover sings. So what? You are a meathead.
Criteria from the Awards site: “The Honors recipients recognized for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts. . . . The primary criterion in the selection process is excellence.”
And looking at this year’s list — this is the best that can be found? Especially Letterman. Occasionally funny, yes, but he represents “excellence?”
The only “award” that Letterman deserves is one for being smug, smarmy, and snarky.
Letterman is nothing but a lottery winner in an expensive suit.
What the hell is going on here? I suspect the first seven posters are all the same person, because anyone who doesn’t appreciate Letterman’s gargantuan contributions to late night television and comedy in general doesn’t have a clue. What Ernie Kovacs, Jack Paar, and Johnny Carson were to their generations, David Letterman was to his. These prior commentators should all form their own little “Tea Party” for television fans, because that’s the inane and head-scratching level of their assessments. Unbelievable.
Absolutely right, Bill.
lettermen just isn’t funny. He maybe tells 5 jokes all night. The rest is political cover for democrats and interviews with empty heads from hollywood. If he were funny leno would’ve been gone a long time ago. But his production company has put out some good shows. He’s a pretty big player in the tv industry.
Bill, perhaps the point is that late night television isn’t really a serious form of art. Or maybe its that Mr. Letterman hasn’t done anything noteworthy since 1982.
Bill, this is definitely someone different from the first 7. Letterman is a total bore who uses his celebrity to promote his own political views. This is how the left wing rewards each other.
These are getting to be like Oscars. They gotta give ‘em to somebody so, give ‘em to the best of the year’s worst.
David Letterman doesn’t need me to justify his honor, but he is most certainly deserving of this award. His Late Night show changed the shape of late night television with its innovative comedy and less emphasis on talk. As he progressed, he grew as a broadcaster, as his current Late Show will attest. His memorable shows (coming back to television after 9/11, coming back after his heart surgery, confessing to America about his indiscretions, which took guts, by the way) and his ability to discuss the issues with anyone from Bill Clinton to Bill O’Reilly, make Letterman one of the greats of television. When he does retire and Leno is still on the air because he won’t quit, we’ll all miss one of the greatest talk show hosts, who can be mentioned in the same breath as Jack Paar, Steve Allen and Johnny Carson.
You must be kidding. Letterman shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath with Carson, Paar or Allen. Different times, different era of tv, and level of civility. No comparison.
Letterman has been the biggest influence on latenight television since Carson retired. Letterman was the major influence for Jon Stewart, Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. That’s what they all say anyway… And Letterman was also Carson’s pick to take over the Tonight Show! Congratulations Dave!!!!!
It’s entertaining to read the outpouring of Letterman hate, totally denying the major contribution he’s made to late night comedy for decades. He’s completely deserving. Deal with it.
Yeah, throwing watermelons off the roof of a building really upped the game.
you forgot bowling balls, light bulbs, and basketballs…
the kennedy honors have become a joke.
Yes, they have. Caroline Kennedy is such a wimpy personality to represent these “honors,” and the picks are always the same…typical Hollywood and Broadway libs. Why not honor Jerry Lewis, Clint Eastwood and some of the closet republicans who dare not show their true feelings?
Someone wrote,”His Late Night show changed the shape of late night television with its innovative comedy and less emphasis on talk.” Right. We used to watch Jack Paar and Dick Cavett have intelligent conversations with Norman Mailer, Marshall McLuhan, and Gore Vidal. Now we watch Drew Barrymore flash Dave. What progress! What innovation! What idiotic crapola! The guy doesn’t belong in the Kennedy Center, he should be on food stamps in a trailer in Nebraska. He’s not funny, and he’s not really intelligent either.
Gee, Dan, you say he’s not funny, so I guess he’s not funny. Because humor is a quantifiable measure, and something is either funny or it isn’t. Also, let’s judge Dave based on one interview (Barrymore), because we all know that Paar and Cavett and Carson never interviewed the cream puffs of their days, no. Only Nobel prize winners for them.
Or maybe, gee, do you think all this might be… subjective? When I was in college, “Late Night with David Letterman” was the show we all watched and talked about. It spoke to our generation. Like Steve Martin and Albert Brooks before him, he was an “anti-establishment” entertainer, poking fun at where we’d been entertainment-wise while setting the tone for where we were was going. And it goes without saying, in my opinion (a phrase you, and many of the posters here, don’t seem to know how to use), Dave was hilarious. And I was far from alone. And as much as I admire Jack Paar and Dick Cavett for their brilliant and sublime offerings, again, in my opinion, neither of them could touch Dave comedically. Now, a lot of the posters here are pointing out that maybe he’s passed his prime, and that certainly may be true — it’s hard to be anti-establishment once you’ve become the establishment. But in his time… man, he made me laugh. I feel he’s richly deserving of the Kennedy Center Award, and I lament the fact closed minded sourpusses such as yourself feel a need to editorially rob him of the honor.
Having a really hard time imagining Letterman — a career-long spokesperson for corporations like GE and Viacom, a man twice as wealthy as Mitt Romney — as “anti-establishment.” That most fine description should be reserved for the Lenny Bruces and Dick Gregorys, not white billionaires from Nebraska.
Spokesman for GE????? Are you serious? Letterman was at war with GE the last few years of Late Night on NBC!!! GE execs hated Letterman for his constant mockery, which was hugely entertaining for all of us watching. Dan, you have no idea what to hell you are talking about!!! LOL Congrats Dave!!
Dave “anti-establishment?” Ahahahahaha! Right.
Guess you didn’t watch him in the eighties, Rose. And by “establishment,” I meant show biz establishment, not the political establishment. There are a number of great books about the climate in the seventies and eighties that discuss the great comedians of that era and how they rebelled against/satirized the patterns of comedy that had been prevalent the last thirty years or so (and obviously I’m referring to the Bob Hope/Milton Berle school, not the George Carlin/Richard Pryor school, which was rebellious in a more straightforward way). Get it now, or do you want to type another terse ill-informed laugh response?
I couldn’t have said it better. I am so glad to have read all of the Kennedy Honors post. I am glad to know that I am not alone
in my opinions in reference to Letterman.
David Letterman is well deserving of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts award. He was one of the most original late night talk show hosts who influenced numerous other late night hosts like Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel. I know he’s not that great anymore but give Letterman his due. He was not the one hiding in closets like Jay Leno. Why all this hate for David Letterman??? Johnny Carson would be the first to say that Letterman is deserving of this award.
Letterman’s contribution is that he coarsened the national discourse and made spite respectable. Hey, Hugh Hefner wants to be remembered as a philosopher, too, but history has clearer vision, and Hef will be remembered as what he was: a pornographer. Dave wants a big legacy too, but history will group him with Howard and Rush, people who made our culture little and petty.
Do people still watch Dave Letterman? That show became lame years ago.
Yeah, sure. Dave Letterman must have been paying everybody to watch his show every night for over 30 years, while Jay Leno has to give half his salary back in order to keep his stolen job. Granted, Letterman’s humor isn’t for everyone: morons don’t get him.
As for Jerry Lewis, yeah, I think the guy who’s greatest contribution to humor in 50 years is “La, La, La, Nice Lady!” certainly deserves an award. And he got one. From the French. With a side of Freedom Fries. Lewis’ talk show didn’t last a half-year. He’s a gifted dramatic actor, to be sure, but he only had a couple good years in him as a comedian after he broken up with Dean Martin.
This makes a mockey of all the other serious Kennedy Center Honor recipients.
A “mockey”? LOL.
Some of us hoped Glen Campbell might receive a Kennedy Center Honor,in his response and incredible fight against his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the amazing international tour by Glen and his family and band to put a face on Alzheimer’s, raise funds for research, and receive the incredible outpouring of love and support from his many thousands of fans. His forty plus years of amazing music, and entertaining in general certainly should qualify him for consideration.
Has there ever been a conservative recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor? EVER?
Charlton Heston, Bob Hop, Shirley Temple Black,…
Clint Eastwood in 2000
what an insult to led zeppelin. does anyone really even watch letterman anymore? I haven’t watched since the 80′s when he started his long winding road to irrelevance and ignorance.
Dustin Hoffman is super, Led Zeppelin so-so. Letterman should donate his kneepads to the Communist hall of fame.