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Conan O’Brien Decries ‘Bullies’ While Receiving Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize 

Comedian Conan O'Brien waves to the crowd at the start of the 25th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Celebrating Conan O'Brien, Sunday, March 23, 2025, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP)
Comedian Conan O'Brien waves to the crowd at the start of the 25th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Celebrating Conan O'Brien, Sunday, March 23, 2025, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP)
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Conan O’Brien Decries ‘Bullies’ While Receiving Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize 

Comedian Conan O'Brien waves to the crowd at the start of the 25th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Celebrating Conan O'Brien, Sunday, March 23, 2025, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP)
Comedian Conan O'Brien waves to the crowd at the start of the 25th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Celebrating Conan O'Brien, Sunday, March 23, 2025, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP)

Conan O'Brien accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday with a not-so-subtle broadside against President Donald Trump, whose takeover of the Kennedy Center, which awarded the prize, has shaken the arts world.

A host of comedians including David Letterman, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman and Stephen Colbert celebrated O'Brien for comic greatness while ribbing the Trump administration and putting a spotlight on the renowned arts facility that is now overseen by Trump allies.

But it was O'Brien, the longtime late-night television host and comedy writer, who aimed his comments most directly at the Republican president without using his name.

"Twain hated bullies," O'Brien said. "He punched up, not down. And he deeply, deeply empathized with the weak."

O'Brien described the award's namesake as "allergic to hypocrisy" and suspicious of populism and imperialism. "He loved America but knew it was deeply flawed," O'Brien said.

Trump, who came into office in January, has spent the last two months implementing much of the populist agenda that helped him get elected last year while advocating for US annexation of Canada and Greenland, firing federal workers, and deporting migrants who were in the United States illegally.

The show was the first signature event at the Kennedy Center since Trump announced he would become chairman of the institution, pushing out billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein.

Trump dismissed board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and installed officials loyal to him. He handed leadership reins for the facility to Richard Grenell, a close ally and former ambassador to Germany who is serving as envoy for special missions in Trump's current administration.

The new board, which includes White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, fired its former president, Deborah Rutter.

Trump visited the center last week and declared it in "tremendous disrepair." O'Brien thanked Rubenstein and Rutter in his remarks, drawing loud applause from the audience.

"When he accepted the Mark Twain Prize, this was a very different place," Colbert said from the Kennedy Center stage. "Today they announced two board members: Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor," Colbert quipped, referring to the former president of Syria and a cartoon villain.

COMEDY GIANT

Other comedians joked that this would be the last Mark Twain Prize awarded by the Center. John Mulaney cracked that the facility, which is seen as a memorial to slain former President John F. Kennedy, would be renamed after Roy Cohn, a political fixer known for his role in Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist scare campaigns of the 1950s, and a lawyer for Trump in his early years in business.

Along with the annual Kennedy Center Honors in December, the Mark Twain Prize is one of the premier events at the renowned arts institution.

Trump did not attend the event on Sunday and did not attend any of the Honors performances during his first term.

O'Brien hosted the Oscars earlier this month and is slated to come back in the emcee role next year.

He was the host of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" on NBC and "Conan" on TBS. He is a former writer for "Saturday Night Live."

"You are a genius, my friend," comedian and actor Will Ferrell said from the stage.

"You're an absolute giant in the world of comedy," said actor and comedian Tracy Morgan.

O'Brien told reporters before the show that he wanted to go through with the event to support Kennedy Center workers. "Our country has been through many different sea changes, and my thought is I will be here specifically to honor Mark Twain and the people that this award stands for," he said.

Previous winners of the Mark Twain Prize include Kevin Hart, Sandler, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Carol Burnett. Sunday's show will be available for viewing on Netflix on May 4.

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Entertainment

In Hollywood, AI's No Match for Creativity, Say Top Executives

US filmmaker Steven Spielberg says he has never used AI in his award-winning films, and he doesn't support AI if it takes work from creatives. Jean Baptiste Lacroix / AFP
US filmmaker Steven Spielberg says he has never used AI in his award-winning films, and he doesn't support AI if it takes work from creatives. Jean Baptiste Lacroix / AFP
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In Hollywood, AI's No Match for Creativity, Say Top Executives

US filmmaker Steven Spielberg says he has never used AI in his award-winning films, and he doesn't support AI if it takes work from creatives. Jean Baptiste Lacroix / AFP
US filmmaker Steven Spielberg says he has never used AI in his award-winning films, and he doesn't support AI if it takes work from creatives. Jean Baptiste Lacroix / AFP

Artificial intelligence is transforming Hollywood at a pace that has sent shockwaves through creative industries, but human creativity will always prevail, a leading executive at the cutting edge of that change told AFP.

The disruption was a dominant theme at this week's South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas where veteran director Steven Spielberg made clear he was drawing a line in the sand.

"I've never used AI on any of my films yet. We have a writer's room. All the seats are occupied," Spielberg said. "I am not for AI if it replaces a creative individual."

Joshua Davies, chief innovation officer of Artlist -- an AI video platform that has most recently been positioning itself as a supplier of creative tools to filmmakers -- told AFP the technology would never eclipse the human creative.

If given the choice between something made using an AI told by a techie and a creative, "I know which one I would rather watch at the end," said Davies, who founded video editing software company FXhome before it was acquired by Artlist in 2021.

Davies acknowledged the industry's anxiety was not unfounded, with new video models having "struck fear in the hearts of everybody" -- not just over copyright and personality infringement, but over the fundamental question of how film and television production will look in a matter of years.

"If I was bringing out an Iron Man movie in 2027, 2028 -- would I be going to multiple visual effects houses, would I expect them to be utilizing AI? We're all kind of working out our way through that," he said.

Davies described the platform's AI video tools as a way to "fill in the bits that you can't shoot, or didn't shoot, or you don't have the budget to shoot," rather than a wholesale substitution for going out on location.

- 'Holy grail' -

Yet the timing is charged. Editors, visual effects artists and other Hollywood professions have watched the rapid advance of generative AI with alarm, fearing that tools capable of producing broadcast-quality footage at a fraction of traditional costs could hollow out entire job categories.

Major studios are actively evaluating how AI can be integrated into production pipelines, foreshadowing significant workforce changes across an industry that has already endured a bruising period following the covid pandemic and writers' and actors' strikes of 2023.

Artlist made headlines in February when it produced a Super Bowl LX spot in under five days using its own products, at a fraction of the multi-million-dollar cost typical of Big Game advertising.

Davies was keen to push back on the narrative that the ad represented the future of production without human involvement.

That wasn't what it was, he said. It was creatives "using the tool to get the very best out of it."

A self-described "techie guy," Davies said the platform's current obsession is on giving creators nuanced control over creating or editing footage -- something he described as the company's "holy grail."

Existing models, he said, handle simple static shots reasonably well but struggle with complex camera movements and consistent performance across multiple takes.

You can prompt an elaborate shot, but for now "you'll get something random" that you can't work with.

On cost, Davies cautioned against unrealistic expectations, suggesting AI would reduce production expenses significantly but not eliminate them.

Davies said his long-term hope was that AI would serve as a leveling force for independent filmmakers and content creators who currently lack the budgets to realize their ambitions.

"There are definitely YouTubers who make some of the best action work out there on no budget," he said.

"AI will level that playing field completely -- the story will be what matters."

He struck a cautiously optimistic note on the creative industry's direction, dismissing the most dystopian predictions.

"The idea that no one works at the end of it is the bit that doesn't hold any water with me," he said.

"There's been more and more of everything, not less and less -- and the cream rises to the top anyway, because the human element is what we crave."

Entertainment

BTS Say They’re ‘Just Country Kids’ Ahead of Comeback Mega-Gig

People walk past a billboard promoting a comeback concert of K-pop boy group BTS at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
People walk past a billboard promoting a comeback concert of K-pop boy group BTS at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
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BTS Say They’re ‘Just Country Kids’ Ahead of Comeback Mega-Gig

People walk past a billboard promoting a comeback concert of K-pop boy group BTS at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
People walk past a billboard promoting a comeback concert of K-pop boy group BTS at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on March 17, 2026. (AFP)

K-pop megastars BTS still see themselves as "country kids from South Korea", according to a trailer for a new documentary released Tuesday ahead of their huge comeback concert this weekend.

More than a quarter of a million fans are expected to throng central Seoul on Saturday for BTS's open-air gig, the first performance in almost four years by the boy band seen as the biggest in the world.

A day before, the group's fifth studio album, "ARIRANG" -- named after a beloved folk song about longing and separation, something of an unofficial national anthem of South Korea -- will be released.

The documentary, "BTS: The RETURN", will be released on Netflix on March 27, chronicling the seven-member group's comeback after completing their military service, widely seen as a grueling experience for young conscripts.

"We are still just country kids from South Korea," the group's leader RM says in the trailer.

"We are trying to find out what makes us BTS," the 31-year-old added.

At the height of their fame prior to their hiatus, BTS frequently ranked among the most popular artists on music streaming platform Spotify, mixing with the likes of Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.

After visiting the White House, releasing hugely successful English-language albums and performing at famous venues around the world, the group has chosen a historic stage at home for the grand comeback this weekend.

The concert will be staged at Seoul's sweeping Gwanghwamun Square, near the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The area is also where many of South Korea's political protests have taken place, including those following former president Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law in December 2024.

The trailer featured the melody from "Arirang" the folk song, which is associated by many with themes of resilience and enduring longing.

"Arirang is a song imbued with han," an unidentified BTS member says in the trailer, referring to the Korean term for an unresolved grief rooted in the country's history, including war, division and family separation.

Entertainment

Oscar-Winner Sean Penn Skips Ceremony to Visit Kyiv

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on March 16, 2026, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meets with US actor Sean Penn (R) at his office in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on March 16, 2026, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meets with US actor Sean Penn (R) at his office in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
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Oscar-Winner Sean Penn Skips Ceremony to Visit Kyiv

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on March 16, 2026, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meets with US actor Sean Penn (R) at his office in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on March 16, 2026, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meets with US actor Sean Penn (R) at his office in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP)

Sean Penn, who won an Oscar for best supporting actor for "One Battle After Another" on Sunday, was in Ukraine on Monday where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of support for the war-torn country.

An AFP reporter saw the "Mystic River" star getting out of a black car in central Kyiv earlier Monday, wearing sunglasses and carrying a box of cigarettes.

Penn -- a vocal advocate for Ukraine who has visited the country several times -- on Sunday won his third acting Oscar but was not at the ceremony.

"We can say that he's in Ukraine, but it's his personal visit; that's how he sees it, that he needs to be in Ukraine," a senior Ukrainian official told AFP, adding: "He just wants to support Ukraine."

Penn -- who co-directed a 2023 documentary about Zelensky -- met the Ukrainian president on Monday.

"Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is," Zelensky said on social media, posting a picture of the pair sat down in the president's office.

"You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war. This is still true today," Zelensky said.

In an interview with AFP in February, Zelensky listed "One Battle After Another", starring Penn, among his most recently watched movies and said he "liked it".

A second source told AFP that the actor was also "planning to go to the front" in eastern Ukraine.

The film Penn co-directed, an admiring portrait of Zelensky about his rise from comedian to war leader when Russia invaded in 2022, premiered at the Berlin film festival in 2023.

In 2025, Penn and rock star Bono made an impassioned plea at the Cannes film festival for the West to stand by Ukraine, posing for pictures on the red carpet with Ukrainian soldiers.