I was fortunate enough today to catch Fresh Air. David Bianculli was filling for Terry Gross and interviewed Mel Brooks. I was hesitant to write this because Mr. Brooks was afraid to make a particular statement which floored me. You can listen to the interview here: http://www.npr.org/...
Mr. Brooks talked about all his great movies, meeting Alfred Hitchcock, the genius of Gene Wilder, etc. They played a clip of Madeline Kahn singing "I'm Tired" which I had forgotten and had me laughing out loud in my truck (link below):
https://www.youtube.com/...
But toward the end of the interview I got a little nervous because they talked about his Kennedy Center Award that was presented to him by president Obama. When the subject came up the conversation became a little subdued and I was afraid it was going to turn political in a bad way. But Brooks really shocked me because apparently he was offered this award by George W. Bush, and Mr. Brooks turned it down. In his words he wanted "to wait until Obama took office" to receive the award. He also joked that he already had enough awards and didn't need one from Bush. I was so proud to hear this.
And as a side note, during the ceremony Obama said as a kid he sneaked into the theater to watch Blazing Saddles and that the movie changed his life.
So there you have it. Good stuff!
