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Luminaries from the worlds of music and film were feted by President Barack Obama and a black-tie audience of artists and political heavyweights on Sunday at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors.

At a White House reception attended by the political elite, including Vice President Joe Biden and former President John F. Kennedys daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Obama said the five were a living reminder that “the arts are not somehow apart from our national life.

Actor Robert DeNiro, rock songsmith Bruce Springsteen, comic writer/producer Mel Brooks, jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and opera star Grace Bumbry were this years honorees at the annual awards for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.

The president drew his biggest laughs when he praised funnyman Brooks, saying the trials of Jews throughout history were leavened by men like him. “For every ten Jews, God designed one to be crazy and amuse the others,” he said, attributing the remark to the Jewish entertainer.

“The arts are at the heart of our national life,” Obama said in remarks aired later at the gala. “These five remarkable performers have helped us sustain and strengthen our nation.”

Obama noted Sunday was Brubecks 89th birthday and said his own first jazz concert was a performance by Brubecks band in Honolulu, during a rare visit from his often absent father in 1971. “And Ive been a jazz fan ever since.”

“I was telling him that I went to see Blazing Saddles — when I was 10. And he pointed out that I think, according to the ratings, I should not have been allowed in the theater. I think thats true. I got a fake ID,” Obama said to laughter. “I think the statute of limitations has passed.”

Brubeck was introduced by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, who joined other A-list musicians onstage, including Brubecks four sons, in a musical tribute to his long career.

The president said Brubeck told him his service in World War II had forced him “to work the war out of his system by playing some pretty vicious piano.”

Of Springsteen, Obama said “its no wonder that his tours are not so much concerts but communions. Theres a place for everybody — the sense that no matter who you are or what you do, everyone deserves their shot at the American Dream.”

Bumbry, Obama said, was “the definition of a diva in the classical sense, a divine voice worthy of the heavens.”

“On a day like today I remember, Im the president but hes the boss,” Obama quipped, evoking Springsteens stage persona.

He called Springsteen “the quiet kid from New Jersey who grew up to become the rock n roll laureate of a generation.”

Introducing DeNiro, actress Meryl Streep praised him as a great actor and “a fine man.”

The president praised DeNiro for his “versatility” and “his legendary method not only of portraying characters, but becoming them emotionally and physically.”

“He finds the humanity in people who at first glance seem totally inhuman,” Director Martin Scorsese said of DeNiro.

“Bob changed everything for a generation of actors,” Streep said. His character in life, she said, was “big-hearted, loyal to his friends, his family, his city, his country.”

On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted the honorees at a dinner at the State Department.

The living memorial to President Kennedy is Obamas first big public outing since Virginia “socialites” Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed his first state dinner at the White House on November 24, raising national security concerns and leading to a review of the security cordon around the president.

The Kennedy Center Honors, which also attracted entertainment industry luminaries Mikhail Baryshnikov, Carol Burnett and Jon Stewart, will air as a two-hour prime-time special on CBS Television on December 29.

They were joined by a host of Hollywood glitterati and presenters at Sundays honors, including Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, Martin Short, Sharon Stone, Alan Alda, Sting, Harvey Keitel and Chita Rivera.