The Kennedy Center, where the United States government actually honors celebrities in the entertainment field for some reason, honored Steve Martin and Martin Scorsese for their lifetime achievements, along with musicians Brian Wilson, Diana Ross and Leon Fleisher. Variety has the lowdown on the event itself, where right-wing nutjobs like the entire executive branch get to rub elbows with the left wing elitists they constantly deride.
(Anyone want to explain why advocating socialized health care and fighting against tax cuts for the rich qualifies as "elitist?")
Anyway, Martin Scorsese is honored all the time, so I want to focus more on Steve Martin, one of my personal heroes. He's just released a memoir called "Born Standing Up," about his early career as a stand-up comedian, which is significant because ever since he quit that realm of comedy at the height of his popularity, he's always pressed forward in films and in writing, and he's rarely spoken of his rise to fame. In the introduction, he refers to the book as a biography - "I'm writing about someone I used to know."
The Steve Martin we all used to know is perhaps best exemplified in The Jerk, which you can watch in its entirety right here on Fancast. Completely goofball comedy that puts much of the goofball comedy of today to shame. In fact, current comedy goldsmith Judd Apatow used The Jerk to excellent effect in Freaks and Geeks. One of the geeks finally got the chance to date a cheerleader he'd pined for, only to discover she wasn't all she cracked up to be because she didn't like The Jerk. That, of course, means she was not worthy.
Now, Steve Martin is an accomplished writer, an art collector, and he balances good, interesting movies like Shopgirl (based on his own novella) with unfortunate paychecks like Bringing Down the House. The fact that he's more erudite and droll now stands in contrast with the crazed idiot humor he cut his teeth on, which might be why it took him this long to feel comfortable with reflecting on his rise to fame. He hasn't been honored with awards nearly as much as he should have been, so it's good to see the Kennedy Center step up to the plate.
Or maybe George W. Bush just really snickered a lot at Sgt. Bilko.
