WASHINGTON - Opera divas mingled with Cabinet officials, pop stars preened for Washington wonks and red celebrities sidled up to blue celebrities as last night's Kennedy Center Honors injected much-needed glitz to a capital still stuck in a post-election hangover.
Hollywood liberals partied in the Bush administration's embrace and, though much of their ranks had campaigned hard against the president, most kept their political opinions sealed tighter than an L.A. face lift during festivities that lasted all weekend. Similarly mum was former Democratic candidate John Kerry, who sat in the Kennedy Center audience last night applauding while President Bush grinned from the box with this year's honorees - British rocker Elton John, actor Warren Beatty, Australian opera singer Joan Sutherland, composer John Williams and married actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
The weekend's events at the State Department, the White House and the Kennedy Center brought the famous onto a political stage. Rap/rocker Kid Rock guzzled a Jim Beam and Coke at the White House and country singer Naomi Judd talked hog hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell offered to give Beatty's young son Benjamin a quick State Department tour and Faye Dunaway nearly crashed into former Democratic presidential running-mate John Edwards on the Kennedy Center's red carpet (this being Washington, he caused a bigger stir).
