Clinton Pays Tribute

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/24/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

"Each in their own way, tonight's honorees have brought to a venerable art form a spark of the new and unexpected and each has left it more modern, more brilliant and forever changed for the better," President Clinton said last night at a White House reception for the 2000 Kennedy Center Honors recipients: dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, 52, rock and roll legend Chuck Berry, 74, opera tenor Placido Domingo, 59, filmmaker Clint Eastwood, 70, and actress Angela Lansbury, 75. After champagne at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. (which still doesn't have a future resident), the group moved on to the Kennedy Center for a lively presentation of the 23rd annual awards themselves. (The show will air Dec. 27 on CBS.) One highlight of the evening: The crowd's roaring with laughter at a baby picture of Eastwood flashed on the screen as his gravelly later voice said, "Go ahead, make my day."