CBS has released a couple teaser videos of Matt Damon and Julie Roberts saluting actor-philanthropist George Clooney from the 45th Kennedy Center Honors airing 8-10 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28.
But the network didn't post the touching on-stage tribute by his father, Nick Clooney, which The Washington Post reported after the Dec. 4 taping in Washington, D.C.
Damon joked about his long-time friend from a barroom set called both the "Unhappy Hour" and "Happy Hour." Joining him on stage were actors Don Cheadle and Richard Kind; Grammy winning singer Dianne Reeves from Clooney's Good Night, And Good Luck film; and George's father.
"It has been said that my friend George Clooney is the last of the true movie stars," Damon says. "Of course, a number of past Kennedy Center honorees have certainly been movie stars in that classic sense. Actors with class and sophistication: Cary Grant and Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck. And then I think of George… A man who once stole Bill Clinton's stationary and wrote fake notes to actors saying how much the President loved their movies."
Roberts, who co-starred with Clooney in Ticket To Paradise this fall, wore a floor-length dress designed by Jeremy Scott adorned with several dozen photos of George, prompting a huge "Wow!" from Clooney.
"This old thing? What? I’m here for Gladys Knight, can't you tell?"
Singers Knight and Amy Grant were among the honorees, along with Cuban-American composer Tania León, and members of the Irish rock band U2 — Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.
Nick Clooney, who turns 89 next month, provided one of the highlights of the program, attended by a distinguished Kennedy Center audience, including President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, second gentleman Doug Embhoff. The Washington Post wrote:
"Clooney’s father, though, told a touching story about the day the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Nick Clooney was hosting a television show at the time, and, as he was preparing a speech about the tragic day, his 7-year-old son walked into the room with a bag full of his toy guns. He didn’t want them anymore. Nick ripped up the speech. What could be more eloquent, after all?
Also participating in the two-hour TV program were Garth Brooks, Mickey Guyton, Ariana DeBose, Patti LaBell, Katie Couric, Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Anna Deavere Smith, Eddie Vedder, Sean Penn, Alicia Hall Moran, Wesley Morris, Big Bird, Herbie Hancock and Sacha Baron Cohen.
When the Kennedy Center group was announced in July, Clooney said he never dreamed of receiving the honor.
"Growing up in a small town in Kentucky I could never have imagined that someday I'd be the one sitting in the balcony at the Kennedy Center Honors," said the actor-philanthropist. "To be mentioned in the same breath with the rest of these incredible artists is an honor. This is a genuinely exciting surprise for the whole Clooney family."
Clooney, 61, was born in Lexington and grew up in Fort Mitchell, Ky., Mason, Ohio, and Augusta, Ky. while his father worked as an entertainer and TV newsman for WLWT-TV, WCPO-TV and WKRC-TV. The 1979 Augusta Independent High School graduate went to Hollywood in 1982.
Clooney has won two Academy Awards. His humanitarian efforts include exposing genocide in Darfur, which resulted in Clooney being appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2008, and producing three telethons to help victims of natural disasters and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
