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Obama presents arts, humanities medals

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama presented arts and humanities awards Monday to actors, musicians, artists, a military service organization, scholars and a competition.

Among the recipients of the 2011 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal were actor-director Al Pacino, country singer Mel Tillis, poet and author Rita Dove and the United Service Organization, which known for its performances U.S. military stationed around the world.

Obama said he and first lady Michelle Obama enjoy the presentation "because it's a moment when America has a chance to pay tribute to extraordinary men and women who have excelled in the arts and the humanities, and who, along the way, have left an indelible mark on American culture."

One honoree, pianist and teacher Andre Watts, did not attend because, "ever the artist," he had a concert engagement elsewhere, the president said.

Besides Dove, Pacino, Tillis, the USO and Watts, other 2011 National Medal of Arts winners were painter, print-maker and teacher Will Barnett; curator, art collector and philanthropist Emily Rauh Pulitzer; and sculptor Martin Puryear.

Winners of the 2011 National Humanities Medal are author and essayist Kwame Anthony Appiah; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet John Ashbery; author and librarian Robert Darnton; current issues and higher education critic Andrew Delbanco; National History Day, which spurred school children to tell the human story; Charles Rosen, whose writings about classical composers and the Romantic tradition show music's evolution and how it remains a vibrant, living art; Cuban-American history professor and writer Teofilo Ruiz; Chicano professor and writer Ramon Saldivar, whose studies highlight the cultural and literary differences and similarities; and Indian economist and 1998 Nobel Economics laureate Amartya Sen, who changed how standards of living are measured.

"Each and every day you continue to inform who we are as a people, and we could not be prouder of everything that you've done, and we know you've got a lot more to do," Obama said at the end of the award presentation, "so keep at it."

Whitney Houston's funeral set for Saturday

NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Whitney Houston's funeral will be held Saturday at the church in Newark, N.J., where she first began singing, the woman handling the arrangements said Tuesday.

Carolyn Whigham, owner of the Whigham Funeral Home, told The (Newark) Star-Ledger the noon service at the New Hope Baptist Church will be invitation only. She also said the recording star will not be buried in Newark.

Dozens of fans stood in freezing temperatures along the sidewalks of Newark Monday night to bear witness to the pop singer's body being brought home.

Fans showed up at Teterboro Airport to catch the arrival of a jet carrying Houston's body from California and watch as a hearse bearing Houston, who was found dead Saturday in Los Angeles, traveled to the funeral home, the newspaper said.

"I'm here just to see her go on her way to her resting place," said Wanda Bruce outside of the Teterboro Airport. "She got me through a lot of days with her music. She lightened your spirit."

Houston, 48, was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room Saturday, on the eve of the Grammy Awards ceremony, which she was scheduled to attend. Officials said they are awaiting the results of toxicology tests before determining the cause of her death.

Born in Newark and raised in East Orange, Houston was known for her beauty and extraordinary voice, however, her career was overshadowed in recent years as she battled addictions to drugs and alcohol.

Many in the crowd outside the Newark funeral home remembered Houston's local roots, recalling seeing her on the street, in church, or at an event for her namesake school, the Whitney E. Houston Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, The Star-Ledger said.

"She was a natural, she was blessed," Arlene Sanzari, another fan watching the procession, told the newspaper. "I think she just touched a lot of lives."

Actor Matt Bomer confirms he is gay

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Actor Matt Bomer, star of the U.S. television series "White Collar," confirmed during the weekend he is gay and has a longtime partner.

E! News said Bomer, 34, is raising three children with Hollywood publicist Simon Halls.

The actor talked publicly about his personal life for the first time during the weekend's Desert AIDS Project's Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards in Palm Springs, Calif. He was at the event to be honored with the New Generation Arts & Activism Award for his work in the fight against AIDS.

"I'd really especially like to thank my beautiful family: Simon, Kit, Walker, Henry," E! News quoted Bomer as saying. "Thank you for teaching me what unconditional love is. You will always be my proudest accomplishment. God bless you."

Bomer is preparing to play a gay journalist in the big-screen adaptation of Larry Kramer's play "The Normal Heart," E! News said.

"My world has really been rocked by doing research for 'Normal Heart,' just in terms of the history of HIV and AIDS," he said. "And so I'm very proud to receive this award from an organization that is at the forefront of carrying the torch into a very, very bright future."

'The Bachelor' plot based in Middle Ages

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- An expert on the Middle Ages said the idea behind current entertainment such as ABC-TV's "The Bachelorette," originated hundreds of years ago.

Medievalist Paul Patterson, an assistant professor of English at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, said the plots for such romantic TV hits were written long ago.

"Our ideas about what constitutes romantic love have their roots in the romances that were written during the Middle Ages," Patterson said in a statement. "Many of the characteristics of these romances -- including the tales of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Sir Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table -- can be found in today's TV programs, mainstream movies and romance novels."

The first known literary reference to St. Valentine's Day as a celebration of love is found in Chaucer's "Parliament of Fowls," which he wrote sometime around 1382, Patterson said.

The elements of medieval romances include a focus on the aristocracy, or in the case of "The Bachelor" or "The Bachelorette," contestants who are made to seem like they are living an opulent lifestyle -- at least during filming, Patterson said.

"The medieval tales take place in long ago and far away locations, and the characters are removed from local settings and contemporary time periods," Patterson said. "Knights go on dangerous quests and vie for the maiden's hand. Modern love stories often employ these themes."

Medieval and modern stories idealize love, Patterson said, but it's all artifice -- a nice escape, but with no realization that day-to-day partnering takes work, which is why the relationships started on "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" rarely work out and always seem to end in disaster, he concluded.