Bill Murray, King of Comedy, took Washington by storm with appearances at the White House briefing room and the Kennedy Center, which celebrated his art with award of Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The actor and writer was at White House on Friday for a meeting with President Barack Obama.
He crashed the White House press room as Press Secretary Josh Earnest finished his interaction with reporters.
Murray was wearing a Chicago Cubs sweater, and reporters enjoyed his remarks about baseball from the podium, addressing him jokingly as “Mr. President.”
“I feel very confident that [Dodgers’ Game 6 starter] Clayton Kershaw is a great, great pitcher but we got too many sticks, we got too many sticks,” Murray said, according to ABC News.
“At home with our crowd, the weather … we also have a little bit of autumn in Chicago, you don’t get that in Los Angeles. Trees just die in Los Angeles; in Illinois they flourish,” Murray added, according to reported remarks.
On Sunday, it was the Kennedy Center, where Murray showed his class by accepting the Mark Twain Prize, he had previously tried to shun.
Bill Murray
Photo : Kennedy Center teaser ahead of Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Ceremony
The Center had arranged an outstanding lineup of entertainers to “salute Bill Murray, recipient of the 19th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.”
Named after one of the world’s greatest humorists, Mark Twain, the Prize award ceremony was planned with a gala performance featuring Dan Aykroyd, Aziz Ansari, Roy Blount, Jr., Bill Hader, David Letterman, Brian Doyle Murray, Paul Shaffer, Sigourney Weaver and Jimmy Kimmel, and other special guests.
“My theme tonight is what is it like to be beloved,” Murray said, according to a reporrt in The Washington Post.
“It’s hard to listen to all those people be nice to you. You just get so suspicious.”
“As much as I dreaded this, I really have to come back to this idea: There’s love. There’s love,” he added.
Last year, Murray had defended Muslims as the primary election season saw unprecedented rhetoric against Muslims.
While on a tour of the Middle East in connection with promotion of his film Rock the Kasbah, he said he had found Muslims during his school days in Paris just like other people. He added that he has known Muslims to be like followers of other faiths with lots of nutty people.
“It is what makes the garden beautiful: Not every flower is the same,” he said.
