TELEVISION - July 15, 1993

The Beat Goes On: Sonny and Cher, Richard Pryor and the Bonanno organized crime family are the subjects of planned Fox miniseries. “The Sonny and Cher Story,” which the network said probably won’t be ready for the coming season, will be based on Sonny’s autobiography, “The Beat Goes On,” with Bono serving as an executive producer. Cher “will not participate, but is not objecting either,” Fox said. Film director John Landis (“Trading Places,” “Oscar”) has also agreed to develop and produce three movies for the network. Fox’s other upcoming TV movies include “Natural Selection,” a science-fiction thriller produced by Kiefer Sutherland.

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Still a Strikeout: After record low ratings in two of its past three baseball All-Star Game telecasts, CBS’ coverage of Tuesday’s contest had a bit of an upturn, but it was still the game’s second-lowest prime-time rating. The American League’s 9-3 victory had a 15.6 rating, a 4.7% increase over last year’s record-low of 14.9, according to A.C. Nielsen Co. figures released Wednesday. With each rating point being equivalent to 931,000 households, that means about 14.5 million households were tuned in. Ratings in the Los Angeles area lagged behind the national average, with a 13.6--meaning about 675,000 homes tuned in.

ART

Goldner Leaving Getty: George Goldner, the J. Paul Getty Museum’s curator of paintings and drawings who has guided the museum’s multimillion-dollar purchases of such treasures as Vincent van Gogh’s “Irises” and a Michelangelo drawing of the Holy Family, is leaving the museum for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He will become chairman of the Met’s departments of drawings and prints, a newly created position, around the end of the year. Goldner, who joined the Getty’s staff in 1979 as head of the photo archives department, became curator of drawings in 1983 and assumed the additional post of paintings curator in 1990. Since his first purchase of a Rembrandt drawing in 1981, he has built an acclaimed collection of more than 400 Old Master drawings. Traveling widely on behalf of the Getty, he has lived in New York since 1991. “George’s brains and taste have been important to the Getty for 15 years and I’m tremendously grateful to him,” museum Director John Walsh said. “He built our collection of drawings from nothing to a major collection. For the past four years he has made wonderful acquisitions of paintings as well. He’s been an exceptionally able all-around curator.”

MOVIES

Fest Expanded: With ticket sales up 150% from 1992, the Los Angeles International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival has added a second closing-night show of the dark comedy “Grief,” to be screened at 11:15 p.m. Sunday at the Directors Guild. Tickets for the first screening of the film about life in a TV production office were sold out before the festival opened.

STAGE

New Position: Sylvie Drake, The Times’ Theater Critic Emeritus, has been named artistic associate of the Denver Center Theatre Company and director of media relations and publications for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. She will continue reviewing for The Times until she assumes her position Jan. 1. Drake, who spent a four-month sabbatical in 1985 creating a new-play program for Center Theatre, will work closely with artistic director Donovan Marley on special projects.

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Broadway Heat: Tens of thousands of Broadway fans braved 90-degree temperatures Wednesday when they crowded into Times Square to listen to show tunes from performers Martin Short, Ben Vereen, Mickey Rooney, Lynn Redgrave and Chita Rivera. The stars led a parade of entertainers through 20 songs from current Broadway musicals as part of “On Broadway,” a promotion co-sponsored by the League of American Theaters and Producers.

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Wilder’s Memory: Seems even at 87, Billy Wilder hasn’t lost his business sense. The director was in London this week for the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical version of his classic film “Sunset Boulevard.” Wilder said the show left him curious to take a fresh glance at his movie: “I am going out now to buy a cassette of the film; I haven’t seen one in 45 years.” Apparently Wilder is hoping that others will follow his suggestion--or he has simply forgotten that in anticipation of the stage version, he sat through a screening of the movie with New Yorker magazine.

QUICK TAKES

* The Canadian Brass this week received the prestigious Interlochen Arts Award from Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts. Past recipients include violinist Itzhak Perlman and vocalist Peter Yarrow of the trio Peter, Paul & Mary. . . . Male model Fabio makes his daytime TV debut on “Bold and Beautiful” today and Friday. . . . The Home Shopping Network will carry a satellite broadcast for New Age music fans tonight. Yanni’s “In My Time” concert from the Tampa Performing Arts Center will be broadcast at 5 p.m.