Biden quips about looking for a job as he honours film-maker Coppola, rock band Grateful Dead
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Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola (left) shaking hands with US President Joe Biden who hosted the Kennedy Centre honourees at the White House on Dec 8.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden joked with film-maker Francis Ford Coppola about the looming end of his presidential term as he hosted the 2024 Kennedy Centre honourees at the White House, saying he will soon be looking for a job.
Mr Coppola, 85, was among the award recipients being feted on Dec 8 in Washington, along with rock band Grateful Dead, singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt, and jazz trumpeter and composer Arturo Sandoval. Mr Biden also name-checked actor Robert De Niro, whom Mr Coppola famously directed in The Godfather Part II.
“Francis, I’m looking for work in February,” Mr Biden said at a White House reception for the honourees. “So maybe you got something for me on a Biden-De Niro combination here.”
Mr Biden will leave office on Jan 20 after he withdrew from the presidential race. US Vice-President Kamala Harris lost the election to Donald Trump.
Mr Biden said Mr Sandoval, 75, fled his native Cuba for the US to escape communist repression and “share his own jazz sound with the entire world”, winning multiple awards along the way.
“Arturo’s story is the American story – the nation of immigrants, the nation of dreamers, the nation of freedom,” Mr Biden said.
New York City’s historic Apollo Theatre, which has launched the careers of many famed black artists, was singled out for special Kennedy Centre honours in 2024.
Ms Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff also attended the White House event. They and Mr Biden are scheduled to attend the ceremony at the Kennedy Centre later on Dec 8.
Rapper and actress Queen Latifah, an honouree at the 2023 awards, is the host for the 2024 award show.
Attending the annual gala honouring artists with lifetime achievement awards is a tradition that Trump skipped during his first term in office, after he was criticised by some of the nominees.
Mr Biden and Ms Harris both embraced Hollywood celebrities during the 2024 election campaign, attending political fund-raisers hosted by donors such as actor George Clooney and film-maker Steven Spielberg. Ms Harris’ campaign rallies often featured celebrities, such as singers Pink, Katy Perry and Beyonce.
Trump has had a tenuous relationship with the arts, including a proposal to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. His entire President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigned in 2017 in the wake of his response to a white supremacist rally and attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Trump said there was blame on “both sides”. BLOOMBERG
