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People in the news

By United Press International
Car owner and talk show host David Letterman waits for the start of the 93nd Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 24, 2009 in Indianapolis. (UPI Photo/Mike Bryand)
Car owner and talk show host David Letterman waits for the start of the 93nd Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 24, 2009 in Indianapolis. (UPI Photo/Mike Bryand) | License Photo

The latest news on today's hottest celebrities ...

KENNEDY CENTER HONORS: Bluesman Buddy Guy, actor Dustin Hoffman and comedian David Letterman are to be recognized at the 35th annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.

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Also to be honored at the event will be ballerina Natalia Makarova and rock band Led Zeppelin.

President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle will attend the program, which will be broadcast Dec. 26 on the CBS Television Network.

"With their extraordinary talent, creativity and tenacity, the seven 2012 Kennedy Center Honorees have contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world," Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein said in a statement Wednesday.

"Buddy Guy is a titan of the blues and has been a tremendous influence on virtually everyone who has picked up an electric guitar in the last half century; Dustin Hoffman's unyielding commitment to the wide variety of roles he plays has made him one of the most versatile and iconoclastic actors of this or any other generation; David Letterman is one of the most influential personalities in the history of television, entertaining an entire generation of late-night viewers with his unconventional wit and charm; Natalia Makarova's profound artistry has ignited the stages of the world's greatest ballet companies and continues to pass the torch to the next generation of dancers; and Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant transformed the sound of rock 'n' roll with their lyricism and innovative song structures, infusing blues into the sound of rock and roll and laying the foundation for countless rock bands."

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MICHELLE KWAN: U.S. figure skating champion Michelle Kwan says she got engaged to Clay Pell last week after they dated for more than a year.

The 30-year-old director for strategic planning on the National Security staff at the White House proposed to Kwan on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island, People.com said Wednesday.

"It was a simple decision and it made sense, that's what's so exciting to me," Kwan, 32, told People.com. "We are working together as a team, like in [pair skating]."

"It was amazing from the very beginning how in sync our way of thinking is, our basic values and our sense of priorities. We just both got each other," Pell said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed Kwan, an Olympic medalist, to serve on the Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports last June.


LEVI JOHNSTON: Levi Johnston's girlfriend, Sunny Oglesby, gave birth Wednesday to their first child, a daughter, in Wasilla, Alaska, TMZ reported.

Breeze Beretta Johnston was born at Matsu Regional Hospital. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 15 ounces.

Johnston, 22, also has a 3-year-old son, Tripp, with 21-year-old "Dancing with the Stars" contender Bristol Palin, the daughter of one-time Republican vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin.

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Bristol Palin wrote a book about being a single teen mom after she and Johnston broke up and she appeared on the TV show "The Secret Life of the American Teenager."

Johnston posed for Playgirl magazine.

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ZACHARY QUINTO: "American Horror Story" star Zachary Quinto has confirmed he is dating "Boss" and "Glee" actor Jonathan Groff.

"I'm incredibly happy, I'm incredibly lucky," Quinto said in Out magazine's October issue about his life with Groff.

Quinto did not offer any specific details about their courtship, including when it started.

He did, however, say the romance is a departure from the unsuccessful relationships he had as a result of his father's death when he was 7.

"I found myself in a pattern of being attracted to people who were somehow unavailable, and what I realized was that I was protecting myself because I equated the idea of connection and love with trauma and death," Quinto said in the Out interview. "I had to do a lot of work on the couch to really get to a place where I was able to show up to a relationship with someone who was actually capable of being in one -- and that took a lot of trial and error."

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