Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Will Ferrell, who refined his impersonation of President George W. Bush on Saturday Night Live and later took his presidential act to Broadway, was awarded the nation’s top humor prize Sunday night. The TV star went on to make movies and co-found the popular website Funnyor-Die.com in a career that won the 44-yearold the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It was the Bush impression, though, that might have made the Washington crowd laugh - and cringe - the hardest Sunday. “Washington is not a city much known for its comedy - at least not the intentional kind,” said PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill, who mentored Ferrell on his journalistic skills for the movie Anchorman. She introduced a clip of Ferrell playing Bush in You’re Welcome, America: A Final Night With George W. Bush on Broadway. Dressed in a flight suit under a banner that read “Mission Accomplished” in a mock Oval Office, he explained how Morocco had sent a special unit of 2,000 trained monkeys to fight terrorism “and make children laugh.” With that kind of comedy, Ferrell had accomplished something amazing, Ifill said. “He got Democrats to pay and see and applaud George W. Bush,” she said. Conan O’Brien, Jack Black, Matthew Broderick, Ben Stiller and Billie Joe Armstrong from the rock band Green Day performed Sunday in Ferrell’s honor, joined by Molly Shannon, Tim Meadows and Andy Samberg from Ferrell’s SNL days. The show was taped for broadcast Monday on PBS stations nationwide. Thirteen other people have won the Mark Twain Prize since 1998, including Tina Fey, Bill Cosby, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg.

Loretta Lynn is out of the hospital and resting at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. According to a statement Monday from Loretta Lynn Enterprises, the country-music veteran has been treated for bacterial pneumonia. The 76-year-old was forced to cancel a show in Ashland, Ky., on Saturday because of the illness. She woke up on her tour bus around 1:30 a.m. Saturday having difficulty breathing. She was treated at a Bowling Green,Ky., hospital over the weekend and released. “It was one scary night,” Lynn said in the statement, adding that she is feeling better.