Keillor, Kennedy and the President

Garrison Keillor has yet to receive a Kennedy Center Honor, but at least he got invited to this year's bash. He helped to pay tribute to inductee Lily Tomlin Sunday night in Washington D.C., praising the actress who starred in his film adaptation of "A Prairie Home Companion." Following Keillor's remarks, Jane Lynch, Kate McKinnon, Reba McEntire and Jane Fonda also spoke about Tomlin. (The show will be broadcast Dec. 30 on WCCO, Ch. 4.) Backstage, Keillor shared a dressing room with David Letterman and Steven Spielberg. Keillor told I.W. that Letterman appeared to be under the weather and was very focused on his presentation while the Oscar-winning director was "very friendly and chatty." Spielberg asked Keillor if anyone had ever thought about doing a movie based in Lake Wobegon. Keillor replied that he had talked to Sydney Pollack about it, but it didn't go anywhere. Just before the ceremonies, Keillor was among the guests invited to the White House for dinner. "I sat in the East Room in a spot where I could see the president's TelePrompTer," he said. "His ad-libs were beautiful. He's a funny, funny guy and I got a chance to tell him that."

Neal Justin

Who's that girl?

On Friday, Kendall King, 9, will get to have her dream come true. She will have a cameo role in "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" at the Children's Theatre in Minneapolis. The Twin Cities girl, who has been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect and chronic lung disorder, will walk on during four scenes in the popular holiday show as one of the Whos in Whoville. Her appearance is part of the seventh annual Macy's National Believe Day in conjunction with the Make-A-Wish organization. No doubt, Kendall's joy is something that not even a Grinch can steal.

Rohan Preston

A big Spieler

A lot of love got thrown around In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre on Monday night. Sandy Spieler, the long-serving artistic leader of the troupe, was honored with a big party for being the 2014 McKnight Distinguished Artist. The Brass Messengers had the assemblage twisting and shouting on the sloped floor of the auditorium. This has been a crazy year for Spieler. She won the award in May and, by September, the theater was on hiatus because of financial trouble. It's back, stripped down, and performing its signature Christmas show, "La Natividad."

Graydon Royce

Heart of the Beast director and now a McKnight Distinguished Artist, Sandy Spieler.

Almost famous

A shy young man walked up to the Xcel Energy Center box office at KDWB's Jingle Ball and asked for a security guard to escort him to his seat. He said he was "sorta famous," and his mother had prearranged an escort. She knows him as Jonah Frantzich, but his stage name is Jonah Marais. One of the performers at DigiFest at the State Fair last summer, the Stillwater wannabe, 16, has more than 24,000 Twitter followers. While he was waiting for security by the box office, several Jingle Ballers — tween and teen girls, of course — recognized Jonah and took a few dozen selfies with him. After he was seated in the arena, he tweeted to his fans to "come say hi." He must have felt safer with security nearby.

Jon Bream

Blowing out the Blowouts

One reason behind Doomtree calling this week's eight-day Blowout marathon the "#LastBlowoutEver" is because, 10 years in, the members are worried about keeping it fresh. They certainly accomplished that so far. On Saturday, the hip-hop crew got things started at the newly made-over Turf Club with new songs and their new Doomtree brand Surly beer (tastes like: Bell's Two Hearted Ale). On Sunday, they went on a first-ever pub crawl with fans in two buses to six different bars, ending with a surprise show in a northeast Minneapolis warehouse. Tuesday's all-ages concert at Triple Rock drew a surprising number of fans under the age of 10, some of whom watched from their dad's shoulders and more of whom learned what a dance pit and F-bombs are. Things don't get much more fresh than that. Blowout 10 enters the final lap Friday and Saturday at First Avenue.

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

Early 'Candidate'

The rehearsal room was jammed Saturday as Minnesota Opera offered a first listen to "The Manchurian Candidate." Composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell listened as music director Michael Christie conducted a workshop performance of the opera, which will have its world premiere in March. Donors, press and opera execs from at least three companies were in the audience. Christie told I.W. that he worked with the orchestra for 12 hours in the days before the Saturday performance, with Puts making changes along the way. The composer said he was pleased with what he heard. Rehearsals start in February.

Graydon Royce