USA Today was there:

Longtime Taylor friend Michael Jackson was not there. When asked if he had been invited, veteran producer and director George Stevens Jr. said, ''We didn't extend ourselves disproportionately. He was busy in a hotel room, on a balcony with a baby,'' he added with a smile.

Stevens also said that ''Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, Richard Burton and Jimmy Dean would be at the top of the list'' for a Taylor tribute, but they, too, were not available.

Colin Powell had them rolling in the aisles:

Of honoree Jones, he said: ''I can't escape the brother. I may be in Katmandu, Asia or Africa, trying to get some rest. And I flick that clicker and hear (Jones say): 'This is CNN.' ''

Powell wiggled his hips, singing ''I like to be in America!'' from West Side Story for Rivera, the first Latina to receive a Kennedy Center Honor and who wowed audiences in 1957 when she starred in the play on Broadway.

To Levine, he likened diplomatic relations to that of a conductor's job — managing egos and getting everybody on the same sheet of music. ''If you ever get tired of the Met, I have a job for you at the United Nations.''

He told Simon that he could relate to the rocker's music, because he grew up in the South Bronx. ''It wasn't Paul, it was me and Julio down by the schoolyard.''

Of Taylor, Powell said she was a woman of ''passion with a capital P,'' but also ''a woman of great compassion as well.''