Yo-Yo Ma, Sarah Jessica Parker join arts panel

Sarah Jessica Parker, Forest Whitaker, Yo-Yo Ma and Teresa Heinz will serve on a presidential arts board.

Updated 8:28 p.m. ET

Several stars of stage, screen and fashion runways will join the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a largely ceremonial, blue-ribbon group that advises President Obama on arts and cultural issues.

Yo-Yo Ma, who played at Obama's inauguration, will join the panel, along with actor Edward Norton, "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker, actress and Democratic Party activist Kerry Washington, "Last King of Scotland" and "Good Morning Vietnam" star Forest Whitaker, Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour and movie and TV regular Alfre Woodard.

The president also tapped two Senate spouses to serve on the committee: Teresa Heinz, the wife of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Jill Cooper Udall, the wife of Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.). Heinz's ascension means that Kerry's wife and brother, Cameron F. Kerry, have secured roles with the administration.

The bold-faced names trumped the announcement of two other nominees: Grayling G. Williams to serve as director of Homeland Security's Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement and Paul R. Verkuil to serve as the chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States.

Track Obama's nominees with The Washington Post's Head Count

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