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

Double Dose of Dave: Wondering what NBC will be airing in David Letterman’s old spot when the talk show host starts his CBS run Aug. 30? Why, David Letterman. NBC will rebroadcast the first 10 “Late Night With David Letterman” shows that originally aired in February, 1982, thus allowing die-hard Letterman fans back-to-back Dave, since the NBC reruns will follow the CBS debut shows. Letterman’s replacement at NBC, Conan O’Brien, takes over the Peacock’s “Late Night” desk Sept. 13. . . . Meanwhile, CBS has delayed choosing a program for the 12:35 a.m. slot after Letterman. The network will continue airing its “Crimetime After Primetime” mix of action series until April.

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Parting of Ways: Correspondent Garrick Utley, after a distinguished 30-year career at NBC News, will be leaving the network shortly. Negotiations on a new contract and his reported $800,000 annual salary broke down Wednesday. Utley, 53, may be headed to PBS, to anchor an overseas commentary show called “USA Journal” that’s under development by McNeil-Lehrer Productions. . . . Meanwhile, NBC News national correspondent Brian Williams has been named anchor of the Saturday edition of “NBC Nightly News,” effective immediately.

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Dateline--Court?”Dateline NBC” may be headed for court. The Southeastern Eye Center in Greensboro, N.C., gave NBC notice Wednesday that it intends to sue for libel and slander within five days. The network has gotten flack over a May report that questioned the way some patients’ problems are diagnosed. The center has said the report was erroneous and hurt its business. NBC has refused to apologize for the report.

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POP/ROCK

Tricked Out of Profits? Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steve Adler was tricked into signing over millions of dollars in profits before he was kicked out of the band because of his heroin addiction, his attorney told a Los Angeles jury Wednesday. In the opening statements of Adler’s case against the band, attorney David Chodos estimated Guns N’ Roses owes Adler $4 million to $10 million in profits earned before Adler was given the boot in March, 1990. The suit seeks unspecified damages, income from the 1991 “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II” albums, a share of the group’s merchandising contracts and money allegedly denied him by accounting procedures. Guns N’ Roses members maintain that he was “deprived of nothing that he was entitled to.” Adler testified he lied to band members about his drug problem and the problem remains. “I will be a heroin addict until I die,” he said.

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Madonna’s Legal ‘Fever’: A small Manhattan record company has filed a $2.2-million lawsuit in New York accusing Madonna, Time-Warner Inc. and several music companies of copyright infringement. In the federal court suit, Easy Street Records charges that Madonna used “substantial and important portions” of a 1985 record titled “You Don’t Know” in two of her songs, “Fever” and “Deeper and Deeper,” without consent.

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Michael Mania: Michael Jackson is at the front of a revolutionary promotional blitzkrieg in Moscow, where the pop star will perform Sept. 15. On Tuesday, Pepsi ran a national TV show about Jackson’s life, complete with Russian subtitles, and, on Wednesday, the first of 10 commercials began airing in the same land where rock music was condemned until 1991. But the cost of freedom includes ticket prices from $11 to $111 for Jackson’s show--steep for Russians whose average monthly salary is about $48.

MOVIES

John West Memorial: A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Directors Guild of America for John West, entertainment publicist and vice president of the PMK public relations firm. West worked on films by such directors as Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, Louis Malle and John Waters, and with actors including Bette Midler, Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. He died July 24, on his 37th birthday, of AIDS.

QUICK TAKES

Dan Castellaneta has been voted a juried Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work as Homer on Fox’s “The Simpsons.” It is his second Emmy for the role. . . . Burt Reynolds has lost another endorsement contract--with Quaker State oil, which he had promoted for 18 months. Earlier this week, the Florida Citrus Commission pulled Reynolds’ orange juice ads, saying he no longer conveyed the image of a happy family man. . . . TV host Robin Leach filed a $60-million lawsuit in L.A. Superior Court Thursday against the Globe, in conjunction with three “personal and private” photographs the tabloid printed of him in May. . . . Kevin A. Hagen, former general manager of both the Florida and Denver symphony orchestras, has been appointed orchestra manager of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, effective immediately.

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