Obama Taps Hollywood for Arts Committee

President Obama is tapping some big names from Hollywood to serve on the President’s Committee on Arts and the Humanities.

Among the 25 members announced Monday by the White House were actors Edward Norton, Forest Whitaker, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington and Alfre Woodard; CAA partner and managing director Bryan Lourd; independent film producer Liz Manne; and publicist Andy Spahn.

They join a committee that will include Vogue editor Anna Wintour, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Teresa Heinz, a philanthropist and wife of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

President Obama previously appointed writer-director-producer George Stevens Jr. and theater producer Margo Lion to serve as co-chairs of the committee and New York University Tisch School of the Arts dean Mary Schmidt Campbell to serve as vice chair.

First Lady Michelle Obama is the committee’s honorary chairman.

In August, the president named Rachel Goslins, independent TV and film producer, as the committee's executive director.

Since 1982, the committee has worked to advance the White House's arts and humanities objectives by working directly with the three primary cultural agencies – the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Its goal is to initiate and support key programs; to recognize excellence in the fields of arts and humanities; and to encourage private-public partnerships around those disciplines, according to the committee’s website.