MOVIES - Aug. 19, 1993

‘Fugitive’ Favored: Moviegoers, spending their box-office bucks in record amounts this summer, have dubbed “The Fugitive” their favorite flick. In a poll of 2,400 people over the age of 12 by the American Research Group, the top five movies were “The Fugitive,” “Free Willy,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Jurassic Park” and “The Firm.” Moviegoers rated the 19 summer films released so far higher than the 1992 crop, giving them an average rating of 4.9 (on a scale of 1 to 6), compared to 4.4 last year. On the down side, “Coneheads,” “Poetic Justice,” “Hocus Pocus” and “Rising Sun” ranked at the bottom of viewers’ lists.

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Brando Sues: Actor Marlon Brando has filed suit against producer Elliot Kastner (“A Chorus of Disapproval,” “The Blob”) and Cinema International Corp., alleging that a $1-million check he was given in June for agreeing to appear in a musical film version of “Treasure Island” bounced at the bank. Brando’s Superior Court suit also alleges Kastner promised Brando the money so he could use the actor’s name to attract financing for the film. The suit seeks $1 million plus interest, and alleges breach of an oral agreement, negligent misrepresentation and fraud.

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Brandon Lee Lawsuit Grows: The Wilmington, N.C., hospital that treated actor Brandon Lee after he was fatally shot during filming of “The Crow” last March has attached a $46,405 claim to a lawsuit Lee’s mother filed earlier this month in conjunction with the actor’s death. The New Hanover Regional Medical Center says it wants to cover the cost of medical services performed on Lee, who was brought in at 12:30 a.m. on March 31 and died about 1 p.m. Meanwhile, District Attorney Jerry Spivey said he plans to announce, probably within the next 10 days, whether he will pursue charges of negligent homicide against “The Crow’s” production company, Carolco.

POP/ROCK

‘River’ Flows to No. 1: Pop stylist Billy Joel’s new “River of Dreams” album will enter the U.S. sales charts Saturday at No. 1 after selling more than 232,000 copies. Joel’s collection knocked the “Sleepless in Seattle” soundtrack album out of the top spot by outselling it by almost 100,000 copies. Blind Melon’s self-titled debut continues its dramatic four-week surge up the pop album chart and will rank No. 7 after selling 80,000 copies last week.

TV/RADIO

A ‘Hall’ for Laughs: Carol Burnett, George Burns, Richard Pryor, Walter Matthau, Red Skelton, Jonathan Winters and Milton Berle are among those who will be honored for their lifetime achievements in “The Comedy Hall of Fame,” to be taped Aug. 29 at the Beverly Hilton and aired on NBC in November. Skelton (80) and Berle (85) will also be honored in special birthday celebrations, along with Bob Hope (90) and Imogene Coca (85).

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Power Hungry: KCAL’s new “Live in L.A.” morning show got an unanticipated assist from the sun on Wednesday--its third day of broadcast. A power outage along Melrose Avenue, where the program films at Paramount Pictures, forced the cast and crew to move the show, guests and audience outside to a back parking lot about 50 minutes before the show’s 10 a.m. start. Emergency generators ran the equipment, and the show went off without a hitch.

Northward Bound: KFI-AM (640) Program Director David Hall has resigned from the talk-radio station to become program director at KIRO-AM/FM in Seattle. He leaves in September. KFI had risen from No. 21 to No. 4 in the ratings under Hall’s leadership. A successor has not been named.

WORLD NEWS

‘Waiting’ in Sarajevo: Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” may never have opened in a more fitting place--Sarajevo, where 380,000 people wait for a salvation that never seems to come. Staged by noted American author Susan Sontag with an all-volunteer cast and crew, the classic avant-garde play had its Sarajevo premiere Tuesday in a dingy candle-lit theater in a bomb-blasted block 1,000 feet from civil war front lines. With mortars raining upon another part of the city, wounding 14 people minutes before the play began, about 100 spectators, including the Bosnian vice president and U.N. peacekeeping soldiers, crammed into a stifling little children’s theater to see the 100-minute work, which is presented free and will run as long as there is an audience. “It’s about the situation of people who are weak and vulnerable waiting for something, day after day, they hope will save them, and yet despise themselves for hoping because they know it probably won’t happen,” Sontag said. “And that seems very close to the situation of the people of Sarajevo even though the play was written 40 years ago.”

QUICK TAKES

Comic David Brenner has won permanent custody of his 11-year-old son, Cole, after a seven-year battle with the child’s mother, which included public appeals made on the “Arsenio Hall” and “Joan Rivers” talk shows after the child’s mother, Charisse Brody, vanished with Cole in 1991. She returned the child after the appeals. . . . Former Beirut hostage Joseph Cicippio speaks about his ordeal in a one-hour “Investigative Reports” special airing Friday at 6 and 10 p.m. on cable’s A&E.;