Oprah Winfrey and McCartney top new Kennedy Center Honors - Arts

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and former Beatle Paul McCartney top the list of show business luminaries to be saluted for their contributions to U.S. arts and culture at this year's Kennedy Center Honors.
Rounding out the roster of 2010's honorees announced by organizers on Tuesday are country music legend Merle Haggard, Broadway composer and lyricist Jerry Herman of "Hello Dolly!" fame, and dancer-choreographer-director Bill T. Jones.
Recipients of the 33rd annual awards will be feted at a December 5 gala event attended by U.S. entertainment and political glitterati at the opera house of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will welcome the honorees to a White House reception. The five recipients will be saluted with tributes and performances by peers at the Kennedy Center later in the evening.
The CBS television network will broadcast the Kennedy Center gala, which has become a highlight of Washington's cultural calendar, on December 28 as a two-hour special.
"The Kennedy Center celebrates five individuals who have spent their lives enriching, inspiring and elevating the cultural vibrancy of our nation and the world," Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein said in a statement.
The naming of Winfrey, one of the most influential and highly paid women on television, comes as she prepares to end her popular weekday talk show in 2011 after 25 years on the air, to focus on the launch of her own cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, a Los Angeles-based venture she formed with Discovery Communications Inc.
Winfrey, 56, also plans to debut a new evening program called "Oprah's Next Chapter" she will host from different venues around the globe on OWN.
Her original program, "The Oprah Winfrey Show," is broadcast from Chicago and airs in more than 140 countries. It ranks as the top-rated U.S. daytime talk show.
Although Winfrey's influence and work extends to motion pictures, books, magazines and live theater, she is one of the few Kennedy Center honorees over the years who made their name primarily in television. Others have included Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, Johnny Carson and Lucille Ball.
Winfrey's immediate reaction to being named a Kennedy Center honoree, according to The Washington Post, was: "Wow-zee!"
In a statement of his own, McCartney, 68, paid tribute to the slain U.S. president for whom the Kennedy Center and its annual honors are named.
"President Kennedy was such an icon for us in the Sixties, and his presidency was so inspiring for so many people that it is a great pleasure for this kid from Liverpool to receive this honor," the singer-songwriter, knighted as Sir Paul, said in a statement.
The Beatles' first U.S. visit, a few months after Kennedy's November 1963 assassination, is widely hailed as the start of the so-called "British invasion" that swept America's pop music scene, changing the face of rock 'n' roll and launching a 1960s cultural phenomenon.
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Recession creates new trend in fashion shopping - Fashion

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. recession has changed how people shop for fashion, with an eye for special pieces rather than trusty wardrobe basics, and top retail buyers say this trend is likely to last beyond an economic recovery.
As Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week begins in New York on Thursday, fashion directors from such high-end stores as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus say they will be on the lookout for eye-catching collections to wow customers.
After a dismal 2009, retail sales have improved every month for the past year, but consumer confidence has been slow to recover and is only half as strong as at the start of 2008. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity and is considered critical to the recovery.
"We have seen a change in the way that customers shop as a result of the economic climate that we have been in, and I see that trend continuing," said Colleen Sherin, fashion market director for Saks.
"Women are not necessarily looking for basics ... they're looking for wow pieces, something that inspires more of an emotional reaction," she said. "They are looking for value. They're looking for quality at a price."
Even classic, basic pieces such as a white shirt are being reinterpreted to appeal to customers, with perhaps a dramatic new collar or interesting cuff details, Sherin said.
More than 90 designers will show at New York Fashion Week's new headquarters on Manhattan's Upper West Side, up about 50 percent from the last two seasons in February and September. Countless more show in other venues around the city. The New York shows are followed by shows in London, Milan and Paris.
"SHE WANTS FASHION"
The semi-annual event generates more than $770 million a year in economic activity in New York, where fashion is the second-largest industry behind finance. New York is home to more than 800 fashion companies, employing 175,000 people, generating $10 billion in wages and $1.5 billion tax revenue.
Ken Downing, fashion director at Neiman Marcus, said while the outlook for the U.S. economy appeared to be improving, customers were still selective when buying fashion.
"She's being very thoughtful when she's purchasing," he said of shoppers. "Even at the most challenging moments in the economy, she was interested in trend.
"She's not interested in basics ... she wants fashion," he said. "The customer continues to respond to what is new and what she does not have in her wardrobe."
While designers are showing collections for next year's spring and summer that won't be available in stores for months, the industry wants to lure shoppers to spend now with a second annual "Fashion's Night Out" on Friday.
The retail initiative launched by U.S. Vogue editor Anna Wintour aims to get people shopping. Designers and department stores will to lure customers by holding in-store parties with celebrity guests and musical performances.
"The idea of 'Fashion's Night Out,' is really to create excitement in the shops," said designer Diane von Furstenberg, who is president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. "We just want people to shop."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference opening Fashion Week on Wednesday that people always need clothes and that diversity in fashion means there was "an opportunity to be well-dressed no matter what your economic situation."
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