Quick Takes: Aubrey Plaza’s MTV stunt a hit

Maybe Aubrey Plaza is on to something with her crazy stunts: The MTV Movie Awards she spectacularly crashed Sunday posted big ratings gains.

The “Parks & Recreation” costar was supposedly tossed from the premises after coming onstage unannounced and trying to grab an award from actor Will Ferrell. But the audience apparently didn’t mind: An average of 3.8-million viewers tuned in, according to Nielsen.

That was up 11% compared with last year’s show.

In MTV’s core demographic of viewers ages 18 to 34, the show did even better, zooming 45%.

—Scott Collins

‘Breakfast’ nears a Broadway end

In the wake of largely negative reviews and falling box-office receipts, the Broadway production of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” starring “Game of Thrones” actress Emilia Clarke, will close on Sunday after a four-week run at New York’s Cort Theatre.

The early closure comes after much publicity hype surrounding Clarke’s Broadway debut. The actress has seen her television career soar thanks to HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

This marks the second time that a stage adaptation of Truman Capote’s eternally popular novel has flopped on Broadway. In 1966, the Edward Albee-penned musical adaptation closed while still in preview performances.

—David Ng

Publisher eases e-book policy

The publisher of Stephen King, Bob Woodward and other top-selling authors has changed its policy of withholding e-books from libraries.

Simon & Schuster announced a 1-year pilot program Monday with three New York City library systems that cover the city’s five boroughs. Simon & Schuster had been the last of the “Big Six” publishers to keep its entire e-catalog off-limits to libraries.

Publishers have worried that free library downloads could lead to lost sales, while libraries have advocated for the largest possible selection.

—Associated Press

KCRW shake-up hits Shearer

A shake-up in the weekend programming lineup at KCRW-FM (89.9) has left two longtime on-air personalities without a seat at the local broadcast microphone: satirist Harry Shearer and music DJ Tom Schnabel.

Both will continue to be heard in other ways, however.

Shearer, host of the Sunday morning comedy program “Le Show” for nearly 30 years, is being replaced by NPR’s “TED Radio Hour,” which KCRW General Manager Jennifer Ferro described as a show about “ideas that inspire new ways of thinking.”

“Le Show” will continue to be syndicated and made available on podcast, Ferro said.

Schnabel, a former music director at the Santa Monica-based public radio station who has been hosting a Sunday music show for more than 20 years, will now host a weekly online program for KCRW, “Rhythm Planet.”

Other changes include dropping “Weekend All Things Considered” and adding a music show from 3 to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays hosted by KCRW’s Travis Holcombe.

“Program changes are something I’ve wrestled with for the three years I’ve held this position and, inevitably, as we grow, we will and must change,” Ferro said.

—Lee Margulies

AMC pencils in Saturday nights

AMC is getting into the Saturday business.

The network announced Monday that it was moving its third-season western drama “Hell on Wheels” to Saturday nights beginning Aug. 3.

It marks yet another push by the network beyond its destination Sunday night programming. Last year it launched its reality block on Thursday nights. Saturdays would see the network build up a third night of programming.

—Yvonne Villarreal

U.K. unable to stop Picasso sale

“Child With a Dove,” a 1901 Pablo Picasso painting valued at $77 million, has been sold privately by Christie’s International after United Kingdom institutions failed to raise the necessary funds to keep it in the country.

The auction house declined to identify the purchaser, but the French newspaper Le Figaro reported that it had been bought by the emirate of Qatar.

—Bloomberg News