Kennedy Center to Artists: Are Those “Checks in the Mail” or Just Another Hollywood Mirage?
Added on December 4, 2025 inMusic News Cards
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Is Mercury in retrograde, or did the Kennedy Center just forget to mail the checks again? With today’s sun squaring Neptune, you’d think confusion was supposed to be just in your group texts, not on the nation’s most star-studded stage . Yet here we are — as showbiz’s planetary forecast collides with political storm clouds and uncashed artist fees, the Kennedy Center’s reputation seems as scrambled as my horoscope after too much kombucha . Scandals, slumping ticket sales, and now, performers left waiting for their hard-earned coin — honestly, if the Millennium Stage had a zodiac sign, right now it’d be Pisces: mysterious and wildly unpredictable. So, what does it take to get paid in D.C. these days — tarot cards or a congressional subpoena? Things are about to get astrological and a little messy . LEARN MORE
If it’s not one thing at the Kennedy Center these days, it’s another. Even before Democrats opened an investigation into alleged “cronyism and self-dealing,” the Trump-era leadership was already fending off reports of plummeting ticket sales and internal dysfunction. Now add a fresh headache: Several artists say the center has been stiffing them on their fees.
Representatives for three performers tell THR they’re still waiting on checks months after their shows. Veteran booking agent Wayne Forte — whose roster includes the Tedeschi Trucks Band and former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett — says two of his developing acts, Ashes & Arrows and Brazilian guitarist Lari Basilio, played the Millennium Stage back in September and have yet to see a dime. The Kennedy Center staffer who handled their bookings was let go in October, Forte says, and efforts to reach a replacement apparently have gone nowhere.
“You see these reports about the Center in the news,” says Forte, who won’t specify the exact amounts owed, “but I don’t know what’s going on.”
A manager for a third artist — who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation — says their client is owed $40,000 in VIP-package revenue from a July show. The Kennedy Center employees of their VIP company have also departed, the manager says, and no one is returning calls — or at least they weren’t until Rambling started asking questions.
A spokesman for the Kennedy Center did get back to THR to insist that there are no payment issues and to claim that all the acts have been paid, further stating that the Center has upgraded its payment systems in the past several months to help “bring [it] into the 21st century.” Those checks, though, must still be in the mail: While the artists’ reps say they have finally started hearing back from the center, they haven’t yet received any payments.
Update: One artist rep reports that since this article went to press, the Kennedy Center did indeed process a payment.
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Also in Rambling Reporter:
Rumors are swirling that Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes — fired from ABC for having an affair — were being considered for a comeback on CBS.
THR gets a private tour of The Stahl House, up for sale for the first time in decades.
This story appeared in the Dec. 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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