LEGION OF HONOR FOR MINNELLI

Academy Award-winning director Vincente Minnelli will today be named a grand commander in France’s Legion of Honor for his contributions to French culture at ceremonies in his room in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he is being treated for pneumonia.

Consul General Francois Mouton will bestow France’s highest honor upon Minnelli in the presence of his wife Lee and daughter Liza, along with such colleagues as Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse. Also attending will be Mrs. Douglas, Henry and Ginny Mancini, Marianne and Kenny Rogers, Frederick and Janet De Cordova and Minnelli’s former son-in-law, Jack Haley Jr.

Among Minnelli’s best-known films are “An American in Paris,” and “Meet Me in St. Louis.”