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TELEVISION - May 31, 1993

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Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

No Joy in Whoopi-ville: Whoopi Goldberg will no longer whoop it up with celebrities on her late-night talk show. The show has stopped production and will not return for a second season due to poor ratings, Genesis Entertainment, an independent TV distribution company, announced. The syndicated show, which aired locally on KCAL Channel 9 at midnight, featured Goldberg one-on-one with her guest of the evening in an informal living-room setting. It has fared poorly in the ratings since it began airing in the fall.

Perot On, Critics Off: CBS “This Morning” agreed to drop a brief segment critical of Ross Perot during an interview with the Texas businessman on last Friday’s program after Perot protested and threatened not to appear. Perot had been booked on the show to respond to President Clinton’s Rose Garden town hall meeting, according to a CBS “This Morning” spokesman. But the show’s producers also decided to interview former Perot volunteers who have criticized Perot and his organization for being too centralized. The CBS spokesman said that Perot’s spokeswoman called late Thursday to say that airing a segment on ex-volunteers violated the terms of the original request. The CBS spokesman said that a full story on the former volunteers’ feelings is set to air on the show this morning.

Batter Up: L.A. celebs will pinch-hit as color announcers for California Angels’ games on cable’s Prime Ticket Network this summer. Tim Daly (“Wings”) is up first for Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Jon Lovitz (formerly of “Saturday Night Live”) will do the June 12 game against the Seattle Mariners. Others in the dugout: Corbin Bernsen on July 3, Kevin Dobson on July 11 and Robert Wuhl on Sept. 2.

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LEGAL FILE

Depo Time: Another Whoopi Goldberg item: A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ordered the actress to complete her deposition about whether she agreed to appear in a movie about a female cop whose partner is a dinosaur. Goldberg and the movie production company, T. Rex, sued each other in March when the deal to make the film went sour. Goldberg’s suit says the company never made her a formal proposal, while T. Rex’s suit alleges that Goldberg reneged on an oral contract. Attorneys for T. Rex complained that the actress stopped showing up to give depositions when she found out the company had a tape of a conversation in which she agreed to do the movie. The judge Friday ordered Goldberg to finish giving her answers on June 28-29, after which T. Rex’s lawyers must turn over a copy of the tape to her lawyers.

MOVIES

Room Without a View: The hotel in Florence, Italy, used in the 1985 film version of E. M. Forster’s novel “A Room With a View” is in ruins, another casualty of last week’s car bomb that damaged the Uffizi Palace. The drawing room where Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter in the Merchant-Ivory film) played piano is now a pile of rubble and broken glass. The corridors of the Quisisana and Ponte Vecchio Pension are strewn with plaster. None of the hotel’s guests was injured.

THE ARTS

The Lunch Bunch: The downtown L.A. lunch-hour crowd will have a little music with their sandwiches starting this week. California Plaza’s 7th annual free “Celebrations!” summer series kicks off on Bunker Hill with the Latin rhythms of the L.A.-based band Tierra this Wednesday at noon. Other series highlights: the French Canadian folk singers St. Jean Baptiste on June 23; the Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra on July 7; El Vez, the “Mexican Elvis,” on July 9; and the touring company of “The Will Rogers Follies” on July 21. The festival will close with the return engagement of Huayucaltia, a group known for its blend of pop and South American folk music, on Sept. 1.

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