Whoopi Whoops It Up For Spielberg

On Thursday, October 8, at 6:30 PM Whoopi Goldberg will be hurling the humor and accolades in honor of filmmaker and humanitarian Steven Spielberg at the 2009 Liberty Medal Ceremony at the National Constitution Center. She'll be joined by musicians Richie Havens and Nikki Chooi.

Goldberg will be highlighting and praising the career of Spielberg, with whom she worked on The Color Purple, while violinist  Chooi, a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, will perform the theme from another Spielberg film, Schindler's List. The evening will close with a rendition of Richie Havens's hit song, Freedom.

Spielberg will be honored for his artistic and personal commitment to the preservation of human rights. In the words of the Liberty Medal Committee, not only has he consistently "presented the stories of the struggle and triumph of humanity over tyranny" in his many films, but he's dedicated himself to gathering and archiving the testimonies of survivors of genocide through the Shoah Visual History Foundation.

The Liberty Medal was established in 1988 by We The People 200 to commemorate the bicentennial of the constitution and to recognize those individuals who strive to preserve liberty. If you can't make it to Philadelphia for the event, it will webcast live at www.6abc.com and then broadcast on TV on October 18 at 7:00 pm on WPVI-TV.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.