WASHINGTON (AP) — Conan O’Brien is set to receive the Mark Twain Prize on Sunday night at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where the backstage drama of the host institution may hang over the celebration.
O’Brien, 61, was named the latest recipient of the award for lifetime achievement in comedy in mid-January, about three weeks before President Donald Trump upended the Kennedy Center by ousting the longtime president and the board chairman. Trump dismissed the board of directors and replaced them with loyalists, who then elected him as chairman.
In announcing the changes, Trump posted on social media that the dismissed individuals “do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”
How that vision takes shape remains to be seen, but Trump has spoken about wanting to book more Broadway shows there and floated the idea of granting Kennedy Center Honors status to actor Sylvester Stallone and…