Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Two-time Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg delivered the keynote address Monday during ceremonies to mark the 149th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” “I’ve never stood anyplace on earth where it’s easier to be humbled than here,” said Spielberg, whose biopic about the 16th president is currently in theaters. His remarks were made at the annual event at the Soldier’s National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa., near the site where Lincoln gave the famous oration amid the American Civil War in 1863, four months after the battle in which the Union turned back an invasion of the North by Confederate troops under Gen. Robert E. Lee. After spending seven years working on his new movie, Lincoln, Spielberg said the president came to feel like one of his oldest and dearest friends, and he sensed he was living in the presence of what he called Lincoln’s “eloquent ghost.” “Lincoln wanted us to understand that equality was a small ‘D’ democratic essential,” Spielberg said, describing Lincoln’s three-minute speech as “his best and truest voice” and the single “most perfect prose poem ever penned by an American.” As part of the event, 16 newly minted Americans from 11 countries took the oath of allegiance to become U.S. citizens. Spielberg spoke of the interplay between history and memory, and between memory and justice. “It’s the hunger we feel for coherence, it’s the hunger we feel for progress for a better world,” he said. “I think justice and memory are inseparable.” The crowd, estimated at 9,000, gave him a standing ovation. Lincoln, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role, concentrates on the period leading up to the president’s assassination in 1865.

Aretha Franklin said “it was fabulous” to have first lady Michelle Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder attend her show in Washington, D.C. The Queen of Soul sang for Mrs. Obama and Holder as well as for about 3,000 fans at DAR Constitution Hall on Saturday night. Afterward, Franklin said it was great to see her VIP guests relax and “shake their hips a little,” especially after a tough re-election campaign. Franklin has performed for Mrs. Obama before - at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Franklin told The Associated Press she doesn’t think there will be an encore in 2013, though if invited she “would certainly come and would love to sing.”