Washington hosts Hollywood elite for Kennedy Honors

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) Washington's elite mingled with artistic icons at the Kennedy Center Honors, paying tribute to five people for their lifetime contributions to the arts and American culture.

At a dinner for 250 hosted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday even many familiar Washington heads were turning as the 29th annual honors were awarded to movie mogul Steven Spielberg, country singer Dolly Parton, musical theater composer and stage producer Andrew Lloyd Webber, conductor Zubin Mehta and singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson.

Parton bounded through the State Department entrance hall as if she was ready to grab a microphone and start singing.

''This is like hillbillies in the city,'' she said as she admired the desk of Thomas Jefferson, the third US president, on display in one of the historic building's ornate halls.

Spielberg, a well-known political foe of the current administration, emphasized the nonpolitical nature of the event a day before he and the other honorees are expected to meet President George W Bush and his wife, Laura, at the White House.

Spielberg said such disagreements would ''remain in suspended animation for 48 hours.'' Rice told guests that her first date was a Smokey Robinson concert but that her father insisted on joining the date as a chaperon, she said, out of concern that ''there was too much power in Smokey's soul.'' Per tradition, the Kennedy Center selected this year's honorees based on the recommendations from a diverse nominating committee whose members range from comedic actor Dan Aykroyd to opera singer Beverly Sills.

London native Webber wrote theater masterpieces including ''The Phantom of the Opera'' and ''Cats.'' Parton, one of 12 children born to a Tennessee sharecropper, had more than 20 gold or platinum albums, appeared in 15 movies and has been nominated for an Oscar, an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and countless other awards.

Robinson earned his place in American musical history writing songs and performing hits like ''The Tracks of My Tears'' during the heyday of Detroit's Motown music scene. Mehta, the first Indian to receive the Kennedy Center honors, passed on a career in medicine to grow from his Mumbai roots and become music director of the New York Philharmonic.

Spielberg's movies, including ''Jaws,'' the ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' series, ''E T.,'' ''Schindler's List'' and ''Saving Private Ryan,'' have made him one of the most influential directors and producers in Hollywood history.

The Kennedy Center Honors weekend was to conclude today with Bush hosting an afternoon reception at the White House followed by an evening performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The show will be broadcast on the CBS television network on December 26.

REUTERS LL RN1108