Some Democrats play hooky to attend tribute to Kennedy
The crowd assembled outside Symphony Hall by 6 p.m., stargazers who didn't even try to get into the party. Because in a week filled with hot tickets, Tuesday night's tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy was perhaps the hardest to score.
''If you could sell these tickets on
With no guilt, some of the leading Democrats played hooky from the convention to give props to the state's senior senator. The assembled included three former Democratic presidential nominees -- George McGovern, Michael Dukakis, and Walter Mondale.''Kennedy's one of the most important people of our times," said Mondale. ''It sounds like bull, but it's true."
Vernon Jordan, the Washington attorney and Friend of Bill, said his attendance had nothing to do with politics. ''He's my friend -- that's enough," he said.
Red Sox owner John Henry said he had avoided many parties during the week, but this was one he wouldn't miss. Same for his Red Sox partner, Tom Werner, who was accompanied by ''Today" show cohost Katie Couric.
There was one late arrival: the senator himself. He was addressing the convention. While he spoke at the FleetCenter, guests gathered for cocktails at Symphony Hall and watched his speech on a big screen. Just after nine, the night's musical headliner, U2 singer Bono, arrived and announced to the crowd of media and fans outside the stage entrance: ''I wouldn't do it for anyone else."
About a half hour later, Kennedy walked into Symphony Hall, following his wife, Victoria Reggie. Other Kennedys included Patrick Kennedy and Maria Shriver. The crowd stood to cheer, former Celtic Bill Russell offered a hug, and many of the night's other dignitaries -- former General Wesley Clark, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Massachusetts House Speaker Tom Finneran, former state senator Warren Tolman, former UMass president William Bulger, former assistant secretary of state Richard Holbrooke, and congressmen Mike Capuano and Edward Markey -- took their seats. So did actress Christine Baranski, Larry David of ''Curb Your Enthusiasm," and Claude Hooton, a teammate from Kennedy's Harvard football days.
Actress Glenn Close hosted the program, which featured the Boston Pops, led by its former conductor John Williams. (Keith Lockhart, the current Pops leader, sat in the audience.) The soloists were Broadway stars Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and, of course, Bono. He wore his traditional rock star garb: black jeans, black jacket, sunglasses. Backed by the Pops, he sang U2's 1984 tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., ''Pride (In the Name of Love)," but altered several verses to ''sing for Eunice, and for Jean, and for Teddy Kennedy tonight."
After one more song, Bono left, and Mitchell, McDonald, and Close returned, singing ''You're the Top" to Kennedy, now sitting on the stage. They also altered the lyrics: ''Take the case, of our last election/Which could use, a slight correction."
Finally, actor Ben Affleck appeared, announcing himself as ''just a constituent" with one more request: ''Could you do us all the honor of conducting 'Stars and Stripes?' "
And Kennedy, trading in his suit jacket for a white tuxedo blazer, did just that, waving the baton playfully until the end, when balloons were dropped from above and the crowd stood for one, last, seemingly endless applause. 