Tina Turner, Robert Redford win Kennedy Center honours

Celebrities from the world of performing arts descended on Washington this weekend to pay tribute to five entertainment icons at the annual Kennedy Center honours.

Singers Tina Turner and Tony Bennett, actors Robert Redford and Julie Harris and ballet instructor Suzanne Farrell won praise from friends, former colleagues and celebrity admirers, at the 28th annual evening gala and tribute concert, held Sunday night at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The superstar tributes to Turner included performances by Queen Latifah and Beyoncé, who delivered blistering covers of Turner's What's Love Got To Do With It and Proud Mary respectively. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall and R&B singer John Legend paid homage to Bennett, performing such standards as I Left My Heart in San Francisco, Fly Me to the Moon and For Once in My Life.

Redford received both compliments and roasts. Actress Glenn Close and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted their weakness for his smile, while Paul Newman, his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid co-star, joked about Redford's legendary tardiness.

Actor Kevin Spacey delivered kudos for Harris, a Tony Award-winning star of stage and screen.

Jacques d'Amboise, Farrell's former dance partner at the New York City Ballet, shared his awe at the speed and strength of the ballerina and now dance instructor who was once the muse of the famed George Balanchine.

The star-studded crowd included U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, hit producer Quincy Jones, journalist Tom Brokaw and U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, whose brother the awards were named for.

The ceremony will be broadcast Dec. 27 on CBS.