Quick Takes: Michael Moore sues Weinsteins over ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ profits

When Harvey and Bob Weinstein released Michael Moore’s political documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” in 2004, it became a cultural phenomenon and grossed $119 million at the U.S. box office.

Now the director says more of that money should have made it into his pocket.

In a suit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Moore alleged that the Weinsteins, on behalf of an outfit called the Fellowship Adventure Group that they formed to release the movie, had illegally kept money from him.

Moore is seeking at least $2.7 million in compensatory damages as well as legal and other costs; the filmmaker also left open the possibility that he could seek further damages once a complete audit is done, a process the suit alleges has not happened.

Attorney Bert Fields, who is representing the Weinsteins, called the claims “utter rubbish.” He said Moore had been paid $19.8 million and has “received every dime he’s entitled to.”

—Steven Zeitchik

O.C. orchestra to offer operas

The Pacific Symphony will try to relight a torch for opera in Orange County starting next year — not with full productions like those that vanished when Opera Pacific went under late in 2008 but with “semi-staged” concert versions of Puccini’s “La Boheme” and Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel.”

The operas will be part of a three-year sung-music initiative called “Symphonic Voices,” described by Pacific Symphony as “an effort to restore [opera] to Orange County.” It starts with the 2011-12 season at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa that the orchestra announced Monday.

Rather than trying to produce full-scale opera, the orchestra will present a hybrid form that deploys props, movement and some costume elements as singers share a stage with the orchestra. The hope, Pacific Symphony President John Forsyte said, is to renew operatic music’s presence at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts while capturing “some of the theatrical drama so important to conveying opera’s ultimate power.”

For more information on Pacific Symphony’s 2011-12 season, visit the Culture Monster blog at latimes.com/culturemonster.

—Mike Boehm

London lauds ‘Phantom’ sequel

“Love Never Dies,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to the hit musical “Phantom of the Opera,” received the most nominations Monday for London’s Laurence Olivier Awards.

The production is up for seven awards, including best new musical and best actress in a musical for Sierra Boggess.

“After the Dance,” by Terence Rattigan at the National Theatre, received six nods in England’s equivalent of the Tony Awards, including best actress, director and revival.

“King Lear” at the Donmar Warehouse got five nominations, including best actor for Derek Jacobi.

The winners will be announced March 13.

—Associated Press

The Huntington taps researcher

Steve Hindle, a distinguished professor of history and head of the history department at the University of Warwick in Britain, on Monday was named the W.M. Keck Foundation director of research at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. He is scheduled to take up the new position on July 1.

He succeeds Robert “Roy” Ritchie, who’s stepping down from the post at the end of June.

According to the Huntington, Hindle’s scholarly specialty has been the “micro-history” of small communities in England from about 1500 to 1750, a period historians regard as the formative era of the English working class.

Last fall, Hindle was recognized with Britain’s prestigious Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. He is managing editor of the Economic History Review.

—Reed Johnson

Sting, Styler as the Schumanns

Rock star Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, will play another musical couple — Robert and Clara Schumann — in a stage production that will take place at the Mark Taper Forum on Feb. 15. Joining the couple on stage for this musical quasi-biography will be violinist Joshua Bell and narrator John Lithgow.

“Twin Spirits,” devised and directed by John Caird, was performed at London’s Covent Garden in 2005 and at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York in 2010.

A portion of the evening’s proceeds will be used to support the Culture Project, the Royal Opera House and Mustardseed Arts Trust.

—David Ng

Finally

Radio change: KABC-AM (790) is dropping “Market Wrap With Moe Ansari” to give John Phillips an additional hour for his nightly talk show. Starting Wednesday, he’ll be heard weeknights from 6 to 10 p.m.