At the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors, an eclectic group of artists were
celebrated for their distinguished careers. This year's honorees were
Mel Brooks, Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, jazz great Dave Brubeck
and opera singer Grace Bumbry. As is the tradition, the President of
the United States participated in the ceremonies. President Obama told
Mel Brooks he recalled seeing
Blazing Saddles when he was 10 years old. Brooks reminded him that he shouldn't have been allowed to enter the theater because of the rating of the film, to which the president quipped that he used a fake ID but wasn't nervous because the statute of limitations had passed. There was more than a bit of irony in President Obama's joke about using a false ID to bluff his way into the film, as it comes a week after two notorious party crashes caused a scandal by infiltrating a White House state dinner. The Kennedy Center Honors will be broadcast on December 29 on CBS. For more
click here