Billy Crystal and Queen Latifah receive Kennedy Center Honors
Billy Crystal and Queen Latifah were feted by their famous friends after they received their Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday.
The comedian and rapper/actress received the annual honours alongside opera soprano Renée Fleming, Bee Gees star Barry Gibb and singer Dionne Warwick.
The honourees sat in the audience alongside U.S. President Joe Biden at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C. while their peers lauded their work.
During the segment honouring Crystal, Robert De Niro appeared on stage and scored one of the night's biggest laughs with his joke about President Biden's age.
"I had no idea you had done so much. And you've done it all in such a relatively short amount of time. You're only 75. That means you're just about six years away from being the perfect age to be elected president," he quipped.
Biden, 81, took the jibe in good humour and waved from the balcony.
Crystal was also honoured with appearances from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who performed a parody of the comedian's Oscars medleys, Whoopi Goldberg, and his When Harry Met Sally director Rob Reiner and co-star Meg Ryan.
Standing in a replica of Katz's Deli, where Ryan's Sally famously faked an orgasm, the actress said, "The scene came really natural to me and I really have Billy to thank for that. I've actually never been around anyone who made faking an organism easier."
Elsewhere during the gala event, Latifah was honoured by Kerry Washington, Missy Elliott and The Clark Sisters, and Fleming was feted by Christine Baranski, Tituss Burgess, Susan Graham and Sigourney Weaver. Warwick's segment featured appearances from Clive Davis and Herbie Hancock and performances by Cynthia Erivo and Mickey Guyton.
The night concluded with a celebration of Gibb, with Little Big Town, Michael Bublé and Ben Platt singing Lonely Days, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart and Nights on Broadway, respectively. Ariana DeBose closed the show by performing a greatest hits medley featuring songs such as How Deep is Your Love and Stayin' Alive.
The show will be broadcast in the U.S. on 27 December.
