Quick Takes: Recordings selected for Grammy Hall of Fame

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main St.,” Bill Cosby’s “I Started Out as a Child” comedy album and musicologist Harry Smith’s widely influential “Anthology of American Folk Music” collection are among 25 new recordings selected for the 2012 Grammy Hall of Fame, the Recording Academy announced Monday.

The new entries, which also include Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” album, Cole Porter’s pop standard “Anything Goes,” Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s pioneering rap single “The Message” and Tina Turner’s career-rejuvenating hit single “What’s Love Got to Do With It” bring the total number of recordings chosen for the Hall of Fame to 906.

Other selections this year include Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ instrumental “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” Mahalia Jackson’s “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” Gloria Gaynor’s anthem “I Will Survive” and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 1940 recording of Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 3.

—Randy Lewis

Penguin stops e-book loans

Library patrons hoping to borrow e-books published by Penguin may have to wait.

Citing security concerns, Penguin Group (USA) announced Monday that it had suspended the availability of new e-books to libraries.

Crime writer Patricia Cornwall, “The Pillars of the Earth” writer Ken Follett and biographer Ron Chernow are among Penguin’s many authors. Hardcovers and paperbacks aren’t affected by Penguin’s decision.

Publishers have been wary of allowing libraries to loan e-books over worries about lost sales.

Simon & Schuster and Macmillan have yet to make e-books available to libraries. HarperCollins has restricted e-books, a policy that angered librarians when announced last year.

—Associated Press

Painting is sent back to museum

An American university returned a 15th century painting to a Berlin museum on Monday, more than six decades after the valuable piece was stolen in the chaotic aftermath of World War II.

The Flagellation of Christ was one of more than a dozen paintings that disappeared from Berlin’s Jagdschloss Grunewald museum during the summer of 1945, looted by British and Russian soldiers.

The painting, which originally formed a wing of an altarpiece, was later sold and ended up in the Indiana University Museum of Bloomington.

The university returned the oil-on-oak painting voluntarily to what it called “its rightful owners” after it was first contacted in 2004 by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, which oversees the Jagdschloss Grunewald museum.

—Associated Press

‘What Happens’ goes five nights

Looks like Andy Cohen might be getting his own Mazel of the day. His Bravo talk show, “Watch What Happens Live!,” will expand to five nights a week.

The sixth season will air live Sunday through Thursday beginning Jan. 8 at 11 p.m. The show currently airs Sundays and Mondays.

The talk show is a revolving door of Bravo celebrities and celebrity fans of the network’s programming, such as Kelly Ripa and Sarah Jessica Parker. The show, which is currently in its fifth season, was spawned from Cohen’s daily blog that commented on Bravo’s shows — which evolved into a Web series before taking on a TV platform in July 2009.

The added time means Cohen will reduce his oversight on programming. The late-night host pulls double duty as a senior executive at the network. He will be giving up his executive vice president title, but will now be in charge of program and talent development.

—Yvonne Villarreal

Springsteen and E Street to tour

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are getting back on the road. The Boss announced the band’s new world tour with a post on his official website, with the first European leg of the tour beginning in May.

The tour will be in support of the band’s new, still-untitled album.

“We want you to know that the music is almost done (but still untitled), we have almost settled on the release date (but not quite yet), and that we are all incredibly excited about everything that we’re planning for 2012,” the post said.

The tour is Springsteen’s first in three years and will be without the band’s famous saxophonist, Clarence Clemons, who died from a stroke last June.

The band has not said how it plans to replace Clemons.

The European leg of the tour will end in July, with dates in the United States and the rest of the world to follow.

—Patrick Kevin Day

Finally

Continuing: NBC has picked up freshman drama “Grimm” for the remainder of the season.