WASHINGTON — Call it Celebrity Week at the White House.
For the second day in a row, President Joe Biden on Tuesday hosted a pack of famous figures from the arts and basked in the glow of the glamorous.
A day after meeting with cast members from the hit show “Ted Lasso,” Biden bestowed National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals to a passel of acclaimed actors, musicians and writers including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bruce Springsteen, Gladys Knight, Amy Tan and Colson Whitehead.
“The work of our honorees is as diverse as the nation that celebrates with them today,” Biden said at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. “But common threads weave them together in many ways in the very fabric of America — the pursuit of excellence, the drive to create, the yearning to connect and the boldness to be truth tellers, bridge builders and change seekers. Above all, you’re masters of your craft.”
Such events are one of the perks of being president, a welcome respite from the daunting issues of war and peace that consume so much of the schedule in the Situation Room. And Biden seemed in particularly good spirits as he bantered with the stars of stage, screen, literature and the classroom. He lightheartedly warned the women that he might “mess up your hair” when he draped the medals over their heads, joked with Knight that “I was one of the Pips” and peppered Springsteen with New Jersey quips.
He seemed especially happy to welcome “President Julia Louis-Dreyfus,” who played a vice president who ascended to the Oval Office on “Veep” and appeared at the Democratic National Convention in 2020 on Biden’s behalf.
“I’m going to talk with Julia today about whether she liked being VP or president better,” Biden told the crowd. “I’ve got to figure that one out.”
He recalled that when he met the iconic fashion designer Vera Wang backstage before the event, he told her, “Every time I open the closet, I see her.”
His wife, Jill Biden, scolded him, he said. “What are you saying that for?” he quoted her saying.
“It’s all those labels!” he said.
Then he turned to Wang. “You knew what I meant to begin with, didn’t you?” he asked. “I guess I could have said it a little better when I said, ‘I open the closet, I see you all the time.’” But as the audience laughed, he added: “Your dresses always look beautiful on my wife, God love her.”
Among the other honorees in the arts category on Tuesday were artist and social activist Judith Francisca Baca; arts patron Fred Eychaner; singer José Feliciano; comedian and actor Mindy Kaling; painter Antonio Martorell-Cardona; and film and television producer Joan Shigekawa, as well as the Billie Holiday Theater and the International Association of Blacks in Dance.
Among the honorees in the humanities category were poet and author Richard Blanco; educator Johnnetta B. Cole; biographer Walter Isaacson; social historian Earl Lewis; Native American studies scholar Henrietta Mann; novelist Ann Patchett; social justice lawyer Bryan Stevenson; and memoirist Tara Westover, as well as “Native America Calling,” the call-in radio show.
As he recognized Whitehead, Biden noted that he is the only writer to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for back-to-back works, “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys.”
“Pretty good, man,” said the first-term president hoping to become a second-term president. “I’m kind of looking for back-to-back myself.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.