Obama Presents George Lucas, Joan Didion With Medals
President Barack Obama presented Star Wars creator George Lucas and 11 other recipients with the 2012 National Arts Medal Tuesday in the East Room of the White House. The president also presented 12 people with a National Humanities Medal, including author Joan Didion.
"I remember when I first saw Star Wars," Obama said during his opening remarks, according to a pool report. "There's a whole generation that thinks special effects always looked like they do today. But it used to be you'd see, like, the string on the little model spaceships."
Obama gave Lucas a hug and a smile as he presented him with the award.
Read the full list of award recipients here.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/obama-presents-george-lucas-joan-didion-with-awards
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Herb Albert (who I never realized was a co-founder of A&M records 
) and local Philly dancer Joan Myers Brown, a founder of Philadanco. On local interviews, she expressed astonishment at the honor and was truly grateful.
Big congrats to this year's winners and the pic at the link of the President giving Lucas a big hug is hilarious. As much as many of us SW fans complain about Lucas' continual awful revisions and milking of the franchise, this doesn't negate the fact that the original was ground-breaking back in 1977 (I was in high school and saw it 10 times in the theater), not unlike how 2001: A Space Odyssey was ground-breaking back in 1968. And I think that hug really reflects how in awe alot of us were when that movie came out.
Maybe Disney will release the original, without the revisions and including the original Jabba the Hutt... lol
