Actress Sally Field and the long-running children’s TV show ‘Sesame Street’ are in the latest class of Kennedy Center Honours recipients.
Others chosen to receive the award for lifetime achievement in the arts include singer Linda Ronstadt, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the musical group Earth, Wind and Fire.
The recipients announced will be honoured during a gala ceremony in early December. For the third straight year, the attendance of US President Donald Trump seems likely to be a subject of speculation in advance of the event. Trump has skipped the past two celebrations. The first time , multiple recipients threatened to boycott the event if he attended.
The Kennedy Center’s president, Deborah Rutter, said it was too early to tell whether Trump or first lady Melania Trump would attend.
“They are always invited,” she said. “He is the president of the United States of America, and it would be good to have these extraordinary individuals acknowledged by the president.”
Field, 72, was a television star at age 19 and went on to forge a distinguished career that included two Academy Awards and three Emmys. She starred last year in a Netflix miniseries called ‘Maniac’.
‘Sesame Street’ debuted in 1969 and remains a force in children’s educational television. The show now airs new episodes on HBO, and they are rebroadcast months later on the show’s original home, PBS. In recent years, the creators have worked to embrace more modern issues, introducing a puppet named Julia with autism. The co-founders of ‘Sesame Street’, Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, will accept the award on behalf of the show.
Ronstadt was one of the faces of American music in the 1970s and 80s, landing on the cover of Time magazine in 1977. Her four-decade career moved smoothly between country, pop and rock with occasional deviations into Mexican folk songs. In 2011, she announced her retirement from singing, citing the advancing effects of Parkinson’s disease.
The 42nd annual Kennedy Center Gala will be held on Decemvber 7. The presenters and performers are usually kept secret from the honorees until the show.
