The Kennedy Center Honors have been pushed to March 2021.

That’s good news for Donald Trump, who’s the first president since the Honors began in 1967 to miss all the ceremonies during his administration. He’ll be well out of office by then, it is fervently hoped.

The Kennedy Center Honors usually are taped in early December and shown a couple of weeks later.

This means that there will be two ceremonies in 2021, one in March and one in late December.

All Kennedy Center gatherings have been postponed including the Mark Twain prize, which will be given in June 2021.

This will give the Kennedy Center time to figure out who will be inducted this next time around. Some who should be getting the prize, like Dick van Dyke, are in their 90s and can’t wait much longer.

There are also issues about race, since many black actors, especially Denzel Washington, are way overdue. Black singers, like Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight, not to mention Sam Moore, have also waited longer than is reasonable.

Steve Bing had hundreds of millions of dollars and what seemed like a fantasy life, but it was obviously more complicated than that.

For one thing, he was on the outs with his father and his sister, who’d gone out of their way to cruelly excise Steve’s children from the father’s will and fortune (said to be worth more than $600 million). Apparently, Mary Bing, the sister, wanted to make sure Steve’s children– whom he didn’t know and had different mothers– wouldn’t inherit any part of the fortune created by their grandfather, the famed real estate developer Leo Bing. Mary, who is divorced, has two children and wanted them to get everything. In January, a judge ruled against her and her father, Peter Bing, clearing the way for Steve’s children to lay claims against Peter’s estate. So Steve, who had little to no relationship with his own children, was cut off from his parents during the pandemic.

Meantime, Elizabeth Hurley, mother of Steve’s son, Damian, posted a statement to Instagram. She wrote: “I am saddened beyond belief that my ex Steve is no longer with us. It is a terrible end. Our time together was very happy and I’m posting these pictures because although we went through some tough times, it’s the good, wonderful memories of a sweet, kind man that matter. In the past year we had become close again. We last spoke on our son’s 18th birthday. This is devastating news and I thank everyone for their lovely messages”

One note on Mary Bing: she has $86 million parked in a Private Foundation registered in Reno, Nevada. It’s called Cordelia Corp., which suggests she thought of herself as Cordelia, the “favorite daughter” from Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” The foundation gives away around $2 million a year, mostly to Yale University.

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I am saddened beyond belief that my ex Steve is no longer with us. It is a terrible end. Our time together was very happy and I’m posting these pictures because although we went through some tough times, it’s the good, wonderful memories of a sweet, kind man that matter. In the past year we had become close again. We last spoke on our son’s 18th birthday. This is devastating news and I thank everyone for their lovely messages ❤️

A post shared by Elizabeth Hurley (@elizabethhurley1) on Jun 23, 2020 at 3:03am PDT

I am not shocked by much but Steve Bing committing suicide this afternoon in Los Angeles has floored.

He was 55, and had everything, or so it seemed. Popular, rich, good looking, he’s the father of Elizabeth Hurley’s son. This means he had an affair with Elizabeth Hurley. He financed films, not all great, but all with cool people who he liked. He had a very popular vegetarian restaurant called Crossroads on Melrose Blvd. in West Hollywood.

Where did the money come from? Steve’s grandfather was Leo Bing. Leo and his brother Alexander were Bing & Bing, the most sought after real estate developers in Manhattan in the post-Depression era. A Bing & Bing building means the creme de la creme of New York. Steve’s father, Peter Bing, is a philathropist, public health doctor and advocate and heir to the Bing & Bing fortune. Steve’s parents are still alive.

In January, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Juarez  ruled that Steve’s children not from marriages, Kira Kerkorian and Damien Hurley, could have access to a trust worth millions established by Dr. Bing. This ruling was determined after reviewed petitions filed by Trustee William Stinehart as well as oppositions filed by Keystone Law Group regarding the children’s right to inherit. The original petition was based on claims by Peter Bing that his son, Steve Bing, had never lived with either of his children, as both of them were born out of wedlock. Dr. Bing vowed the illegitimate grandchildren would never get his family’s money. (Sounds like a lovely guy.)

While Damian was fathered with Hurley, Kira was the product of a relationship Steve had with Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, then the wife of another billionaire, Kirk Kerkorian. Remember, Kirk hired Anthony Pellicano to spy on Lisa? That’s another story.

Steve Bing invested in friends’ movies and whatever caught his fancy. I knew him because he invested in the great original rock and roller Jerry Lee Lewis. He loved Jerry Lee, produced albums by him that featured Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Steve was basically his patron, sent him on tours. It was a such cool thing to do.

As for philanthropy, in 2012, he pledged a $30 million legacy gift to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Extraordinary.

Reports say Steve jumped from 27th floor Penthouse in Century City, where he literally lived in the lap of luxury. One report said he depressed about being alone so much in the pandemic. But really, with that circle of friends and influence, the ability to have plenty of help at any cost, this seems so crazy. What a tragedy that a man who had so much felt so alone. I am very, very sorry. His friends must be bereft.

Condolences to them and to his family.