Entertainment
Trump set to host Kennedy Center Honors, recognizing Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, Kiss and more
President Trump on Sunday was set to host the Kennedy Center Honors after presenting the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office on Saturday, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled.
This year’s recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford.
Mr. Trump said Saturday they are a group of “incredible people” who represent the “very best in American arts and culture” and that, “I know most of them and I’ve been a fan of all of them.”
Sunday marks the first time a president will command the stage for the ceremony instead of sitting in an Opera House box.
Asked when he arrived how he had found time to prepare, Mr. Trump said he “didn’t really prepare very much.”
“If you look at the great hosts, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, those are the greats,” Mr. Trump said, while disparaging previous host Jimmy Kimmel, whom the president has criticized on multiple occasions, going so far as to urge ABC to remove him as host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“But no, I think you, you want to be just loose and not a lot to prepare for. You know what you have to be? You have to be yourself,” Mr. Trump said.
“I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate,” the president said. “But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself. Johnny Carson, he was himself.”
Mr. Trump is assuming a role that has been held in the past by journalist Walter Cronkite and comedian Stephen Colbert, among others. Before Mr. Trump, presidents watched the show alongside the honorees.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of several Cabinet secretaries attending the ceremony, said he’s looking forward to Mr. Trump’s hosting job.
“Oh, this president, he is so relaxed in front of these cameras, as you know, and so funny, I can’t wait for tonight,” Lutnick said as he arrived with his wife, who is on the Kennedy Center board.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP
Mr. Trump said in August that he had agreed to host the show. He said Saturday at a State Department dinner for the honorees that he was doing so “at the request of a certain television network.” He predicted that the broadcast, scheduled to air Dec. 23 on CBS and Paramount+, would have its best ratings ever.
Since 1978, the honors have recognized stars for their influence on American culture and the arts. Members of this year’s class are pop-culture standouts, including Stallone for his “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies, Gaynor for her feminist anthem “I Will Survive” and Kiss for its flashy, cartoonish makeup and onstage displays of smoke and pyrotechnics. Country music superstar George Strait and Tony Award-winning actor Michael Crawford are also being honored.
The ceremony is expected to be emotional for the members of Kiss. The band’s original lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, died in October after he was injured during a fall. The band’s co-founder Gene Simmons, speaking on the red carpet when he and the other honorees arrived for the ceremony, said the president had assured him there would be an empty chair among the members of Kiss in memory of Frehley.
Stallone said being honored at the ceremony was like being in the “eye of a hurricane.”
“This is an amazing event,” he said. “But you’re caught up in the middle of it. It’s hard to take it in until the next day. … but I’m incredibly humbled by it.”
Crawford also said it was “humbling, especially at the end of a career.”
Gaynor said it “feels like a dream” to be honored. “To be recognized in this way is the pinnacle,” she said on the red carpet.
Mike Farris, an award-winning gospel singer who is performing for Gaynor, said she is a dear friend. “She truly did survive,” Farris said. “What an iconic song.”
Actor Neil McDonough said he’s presenting the award to Stallone, which he said was long over due for Stallone’s writing and acting. “But that isn’t even the best part,” McDonough said. “The best part is that Sly is one of he greatest guys I’ve ever met.”
Previous honorees have come from a broad range of art forms, whether dance (Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham), theater (Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber), movies (Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks) or music (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell).
Mr. Trump upended decades of bipartisan support for the center by ousting its leadership and stacking the board of trustees with Republican supporters, who then elected him chair. He has criticized the center’s programming and the building’s appearance — and has said, perhaps jokingly, that he would rename it as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” He secured more than $250 million from Congress for renovations of the building.
Presidents of each political party have at times found themselves face-to-face with artists of opposing political views. Republican Ronald Reagan was there for honoree Arthur Miller, a playwright who championed liberal causes. Democrat Bill Clinton, who had signed an assault weapons ban into law, marked the honors for Charlton Heston, an actor and gun rights advocate.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, multiple honorees were openly critical of the president. In 2017, Mr. Trump’s first year in office, honors recipient and film producer Norman Lear threatened to boycott his own ceremony if Mr. Trump attended. Mr. Trump stayed away during that entire term.
Mr. Trump has said he was deeply involved in choosing the 2025 honorees and turned down some recommendations because they were “too woke.” While Stallone is one of Mr. Trump’s Hollywood “special ambassadors” and has likened Mr. Trump to George Washington, the political views of Sunday’s other guests are less clear.
Strait and Gaynor have said little about their politics, although Federal Election Commission records show that Gaynor has given money to Republican organizations in recent years.
Simmons spoke favorably of Mr. Trump when Mr. Trump ran for president in 2016. But in 2022, Simmons told Spin magazine that Mr. Trump was “out for himself” and criticized the president for encouraging conspiracy theories and public expressions of racism.
Fellow Kiss member Paul Stanley denounced Mr. Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, and said Mr. Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were “terrorists.” But after Mr. Trump won in 2024, Stanley urged unity.
“If your candidate lost, it’s time to learn from it, accept it and try to understand why,” Stanley wrote on X. “If your candidate won, it’s time to understand that those who don’t share your views also believe they are right and love this country as much as you do.”
Entertainment
Fans slam Anne Hathaway over Met Gala snap with Blake Lively
Anne Hathaway is facing a wave of online backlash after being pictured cosying up to Blake Lively at the 2026 Met Gala.
The controversy erupted after a photo, posted by Variety on Tuesday morning, showed Lively with her arm around a smiling Hathaway inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Fans were quick to scold the Devil Wears Prada star for the association, particularly as Lively’s bombshell appearance came just hours after she settled a highly divisive and explosive legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni.
The reaction on social media has been swift and brutal, with many fans expressing deep disappointment in Hathaway.
One X user urged the actress to get away from Lively before she was sued, while others questioned why Hathaway would risk her hard-won public popularity by posing with someone many have labelled a “bully”.
The anger has even spilled over into calls for a boycott of Hathaway’s latest film, The Devil Wears Prada 2, with some disgruntled viewers claiming she has ruined the movie’s release by associating with Lively.
Lively’s presence at the star-studded event was a major surprise to those following the Vogue livestream, as it marked her first public outing since the conclusion of her lawsuit.
The legal drama, which began in December 2024, saw Lively accuse Baldoni and his production company of sexual harassment and retaliation.
However, a judge recently dismissed the majority of her claims, including all of the sexual harassment allegations, leaving the two parties to settle the remaining counts of breach of contract and retaliation out of court on Monday.
Despite the heavy atmosphere surrounding her legal woes, Lively appeared completely unbothered on the night, wearing a colourful archival Atelier Versace gown from 2006.
The settlement between Lively and Baldoni was framed by their legal teams as a way to find closure and move forward in peace, yet the public’s reaction to the Met Gala snap suggests that a “respectful environment online” remains a long way off.
While the film It Ends With Us was a box office hit in 2024, the off-screen friction clearly continues to shadow those involved.
For Hathaway, what was likely intended as a simple social moment has turned into a significant PR headache, as fans continue to slam the actress for her choice of company on fashion’s biggest night.
Entertainment
Kadeem Hardison calls ‘Euphoria’ costar Zendaya ‘a boss’
Kadeem Hardison has described his former Disney Channel daughter and current Euphoria co-star Zendaya as “a boss”, following their surprise on-screen reunion.
The pair, who starred together as father and daughter on the hit show K.C. Undercover a decade ago, have reunited for the latest season of the gritty HBO drama.
Hardison joined the cast as Big Eddy, a character working alongside Zendaya’s Rue in a strip club managed by drug lord Alamo.
The reunion has been a long time coming for the duo, who stayed in touch after their Disney days.
Hardison revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that it was Zendaya herself who introduced him to Euphoria creator Sam Levinson during a holiday dinner.
He admitted that when he first watched the show at its premiere, he was “wildly uncomfortable” seeing the intense world it depicted, which was a far cry from their family-friendly beginnings.
However, after meeting Levinson and visiting the set, he eventually landed the role of Big Eddy.
Reflecting on how much Zendaya has changed since she was a teenager, Hardison noted that while she has matured, her leadership qualities were visible even when she was 16.
He recalled being impressed that she was an executive producer on their Disney show, and he is even more struck by how she has expanded that role into her film career.
“She’s always been that person and she’s always been a boss,” he said, jokingly referring to the multi-award-winning actress as his “little big sister” because she is often the more mature one of the two.
The latest episode provided plenty of dramatic meat for both actors, with Hardison’s character caught in a violent drug war.
He confessed that watching Zendaya’s performance now is a shock compared to their early work, admitting he didn’t know she had such “depth” and felt he had to work hard to keep up with her.
For Hardison, whose career stretches back over three decades to A Different World, the experience was a full-circle moment that proved his own advice to fellow actors: as long as you stay in the game, the next big hit is always just around the corner.
Entertainment
Jimmy Kimmel roasts Donald, Melanie Trump even after warning
Jimmy Kimmel is pressing ahead with jokes about President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, brushing off White House pressure and calls for him to be taken off air.
On his Monday, 4 May, show, Kimmel took aim at the president’s late-night posting activity on Truth Social, singling out a photo Trump shared of his wife.
“At 11:04, he posted this even more unbelievable picture of Melania smiling,” Kimmel said to laughter from the studio audience.
“I don’t know the last time we saw that.”
He also picked up on Trump’s weekend remarks at a Florida retirement community, where the president claimed Melania “hates” when he dances on stage to Y.M.C.A. by the Village People, which Trump called “the gay national anthem.”
“Melania hates when you do things? No way!” Kimmel quipped. “What a buzzkill.”
The jokes come as Kimmel finds himself in the middle of a serious escalation with the White House.
The dispute flared after a 23 April episode in which he described Melania as having “a glow like an expectant widow.”
Two days later, a gunman rushed security at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
The suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, was subsequently charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
Melania, who had attended the dinner, made a rare public statement ahead of the court appearance, directly criticising Kimmel.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” she wrote on X.
“Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung called Kimmel a “s— human being” and said he should be fired “immediately.”
Kimmel defended the original remark, describing it as an “obvious” joke about the age gap between the president, 79, and the first lady, 56.
He also addressed Melania directly, expressing genuine sympathy about the scare at the dinner.
“I am sorry that you and the president and everyone in that room on Saturday went through that. I really am. Just ’cause no one got killed doesn’t mean it wasn’t traumatic and scary.”
Trump himself weighed in during a Newsmax appearance, calling Kimmel “a lowlife, whether he apologized or not” and saying he “shouldn’t be on television.”
The president had previously threatened to “test” ABC after the network briefly suspended Kimmel in September over remarks about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
ABC and its parent company Disney are facing mounting pressure from the administration.
The Federal Communications Commission last week ordered a review of ABC’s station licences, citing a probe into possible violations of federal law and FCC rules at local ABC stations.
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