Is Barry on the Kennedy Centers Honors show to honor Bette Midler?

[marvin]

I am looking forward to watching Bette Midler being honored for the Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement on CBS next Wednesday, , but am wondering if Barry will be one of the celebrities/artists to pay tribute to Bette. I hope so as it would be touching for fans to see Barry with Bette together perhaps for the last time. Marvin

[Carmen]

On Saturday, December 18, 2021 at 12:54:35 AM UTC-5, marvin wrote:
> I am looking forward to watching Bette Midler being honored for the Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement on CBS next Wednesday, , but am wondering if Barry will be one of the celebrities/artists to pay tribute to Bette. I hope so as it would be touching for fans to see Barry with Bette together perhaps for the last time. Marvin

The people the Kennedy Center invites to pay tribute to their honorees each year is meant as a surprise for the honorees. They don’t know who’ll be helping honor them, until the person/musical group steps on stage. Hence Cher’s reaction when she was honored & Cyndi Lauper showed up on stage singing 1 of Cher’s songs. Cyndi had told Cher she was gonna be in LA that weekend. We at home don’t know who’s paying tribute until we watch the gala when it airs (unless we watch TV shows or read papers the next day which might mention something about the gala taping).

Barry was in Vegas, like, December 2-4, then back in Palm Springs for the Christmas Gift of Love benefit shows there right after that, with hardly a break in between. The Kennedy Center Honors gala (it’s actually normally a whole weekend of events where the honorees get feted by various US officials, including the President at the White House) which we’ll see Wednesday, was held the same weekend as the Vegas shows. I would hope Barry would’ve been there, if available, but I also know that the press & others still talking about “Bette & Barry” as if they still worked together, so long after they last worked together, gets on both their last nerves. It gets on a lot of fans’ last nerves, too.

Having said that, I know someone else associated with Bette & Barry was there to honor Bette, & someone else sang a song Barry’s also sung/recorded because the person who wrote it was also honored with Bette this year.

[marvin]

Thank you Carmen for your insight. It will be exciting to watch Bette being honored. Marvin

[dcsharon]

No. He wasn't there. My friends in DC attend the "red carpet" (where the stars walk into the Kennedy Center) and post their photos (I was attending another event). If he was there, my phone would have exploded with photos and demands of "why aren't you here???"

Melissa Manchester will present Midler with the honor. The tribute will also feature Kelli O'Hara singing "Wind Beneath My Wings". Beanie Feldstein and Kate Baldwin will also appear in the tribute. Billy Porter will sing "From a Distance"

(DC) Sharon

[marvin]

Thank you for the post Sharon. It was great to see Bette honored and it was especially touching hearing Barbara Hershey talk about Bette's work and Melissa as well, especially Melissa recalling how Barry and Bette created Bette's backup singing group The Harlettes with Melissa being part of the trio.
Without blaming Barry or Bette, I felt disappointed that Barry was not one of the presenters like Melissa was, especially given that Barry was significant in the rise of Bette's career by producing her first few albums, especially her success with the songs "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Friends". It would have been a precious moment to witness Barry acknowledging the vast achievements of Bette to her on the stage and the importance of Bette in his career and I am sorry that that moment did not place as it should have. Marvin

[dcsharon]

Maybe he wasn't asked. Or, he was asked and declined. We'll never know.

But they taped at the Kennedy Center on 12/5 and he had shows on 12/2, 3 and 4 in Las Vegas and then had the Gift of Love shows starting on Tuesday (12/7) in Palm Springs. So the timing was probably off for him to come East and attend the rehearsals and the show.

Not saying that he couldn't have done it, but it would have been tough. And if he'd gotten sick after being in DC (not saying he would, but you never know), it might have thrown a monkey wrench into the GOL concerts.

(DC) Sharon

[Carmen]

Or maybe he was asked, & didn’t decline just because he felt like doing that (I felt your simple “he declined” could’ve meant it was done in some way against Bette), but maybe he *had* to decline because, as we both already said, Sharon (DC), his schedule over the time frame the Kennedy Center Honors events would’ve been held was already packed, with 3 Vegas residency shows, travel back home to Palm Springs, & 1-2 dates in the Gift of Love shows, plus probably some rehearsals at the McCallum once they got back to Palm Springs. I’m happy enough he was mentioned by Melissa Manchester more than once, so he was still, IMHO, technically part of the proceedings.

[marvin]

Thanks for your eloquent posts Carmen and Sharon and your information about Barry's hectic schedule made lots of sense for him not to be at the KCH.
It is too bad Barry could not make a video tribute to Bette, but I do not want to blame him or Bette for the situation. As Carmen noted, Melissa just mentioning Barry in her remarks about Bette made it seem like he was part of the proceedings.
Hopefully, if Barry is ever honored by the KCH, Bette will be one of the presenters. Marvin

[Carmen]

Something else to consider: I’ve read that the actual length of the gala (except for the recent 1 with Garth Brooks & Dick Van Dyke, among others, where, I think, everyone’s tribute segment was filmed separately instead of as a whole group, because of COVID) runs something like 4 hours—but I don’t know if that includes just the actual time taken up by the tribute presenters & performers, or if they’re including the length of time taken up by having to stop & start over if there’s technical difficulties during the performances. If the gala length is 4 hours, then we at home only see half of what’s included in the live version of the honorees gala.

Continued in new post

[Carmen]

I saw this on a social media account for 1 of the entertainment news TV shows the other day, & it turns out it’s legit because it’s on YouTube too (where I’m linking it from). It’s a video Paul McCartney did congratulating his friend, & now fellow Kennedy Center Honoree, SNL creator Lorne Michaels, on getting the honor.

https://youtu.be/Gsdo-LcTHEE

I’m not gonna say “If Paul did 1 for Lorne, why couldn’t Barry have done 1 for Bette?” I don’t think any of us should. Mostly because we honestly don’t know the current circumstances of the relationship between Lorne & Paul &/or Barry & Bette. Though we have a sense of how jammed Barry’s work schedule was that week. Also, even IF Barry did something similar, it obviously didn’t make the final broadcast—I also don’t remember seeing this Paul to Lorne video during the aired version of the gala. So just because a tribute may have been recorded, it obviously wasn’t used, nor is/was there a guarantee it would be. And if Bette quietly got a letter, note, or flowers from him for receiving the honor, more power to them both. I don’t think we have to know every time they’re in contact anymore, or feel that they’re still joined at the hip professionally. It’s like the line says from Another Life (from the boxed set), “Don’t you see the past is past, and some things just aren’t made to last? No point in holding on. . . to another life.”

For an idea of exactly what goes into a Kennedy Center Honors event, for lack of a better word, read the Event section at this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Center_Honors

It’s a whole weekend of lunches, dinners & receptions at places like the State Department (hosted by the Secretary of State), Kennedy Center (hosted by its Chairman), & White House (Hosted by the President & First Lady). I think there may also be lunches & dinners held by Political Action Committees the celebrities in attendance may be interested in.