POP/ROCKRapper Charged With Murder: Rapper Snoop Doggy...

POP/ROCK

Rapper Charged With Murder: Rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg was formally charged with murder Tuesday in what authorities believe may have been a gang-related killing. The 21-year-old rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was to be arraigned in West Los Angeles Municipal Court Tuesday afternoon on one count of murder, including a special allegation of use of a firearm. Two other men, McKinley Lee and Sean Smith, were also charged with murder in connection with the Aug. 25 shooting death of Phillip Waldermariam, 22, at Woodbine Park in Palms. Lee, the rapper’s bodyguard and the alleged triggerman, also was charged with a special allegation of shooting a firearm from a vehicle and causing death. Witnesses told police the killing occurred during an argument between the victim and a group of men who pulled up in a black 1993 Jeep believed to belong to Broadus. Lee told police the killing was in self-defense. In past interviews with reporters, Broadus has admitted to having once belonged to a South-Central Los Angeles gang.

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Henley Raises $1 Million: A six-hour Labor Day concert in Boston organized by Don Henley and featuring Aerosmith, Sting, Elton John and Melissa Etheridge raised $1 million to help preserve Walden Pond. The Walden Woods Project is now about $3.5 million away from the $10 million Henley said is needed to buy land surrounding the pond, made famous by writer Henry David Thoreau, and keep it from developers. At a news conference, Henley said he did nothing wrong in giving some money raised by the Walden Woods Project to preservation efforts in Texas and California and to a Massachusetts center for abused children. Federal tax returns show that less than 1% of the millions raised by the fund was used for the other projects. “I chose simply to make small donations back to the communities that the money came from,” Henley said.

MOVIES

Farewell to Ban: Chinese censors have lifted a government ban on “Farewell My Concubine,” co-winner of the 1993 Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, after filmmakers edited Chen Kaige’s movie, which deals with recent changes in Chinese cultural and political history. But while the acclaimed film was resuming public showings in Beijing this week (it had been banned after its premiere in July), a government directive printed in a Chinese newspaper warned that bans would be placed on films considered “contrary to the (Communist) Party’s principle on art and socialist spiritual civilization”--i.e., those showing the Communist system in an unfavorable light.

PEOPLE WATCH

In Praise of Lovett: Julia Roberts’ new husband, Lyle Lovett, reminds her of her childhood fantasy man: Abraham Lincoln. “Stoic, regal, gentle . . . that could be Lyle,” Roberts says in the October issue of Vanity Fair, which is billed as containing Roberts’ first interview in two years. “We had only taken flight over the last little while,” Roberts said of her whirlwind romance with country singer Lovett, to whom she was married on June 27. “We were both giddy and wanted to get together and get married.”

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No Memorial: In accordance with the actor’s wishes, there will be no memorial service for Herve Villechaize, the former co-star of TV’s “Fantasy Island,” who committed suicide Saturday. A spokesman said the actor wanted his remains to be studied by a doctor specializing in dwarfism and then to be cremated and his ashes distributed at sea.

QUICK TAKES

Johnny Carson has been tapped for one of the annual honors given by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, officials confirmed Tuesday. The formal announcement of the names of the five recipients of the annual awards--among the entertainment industry’s most prestigious--will be made later this week. . . . Paula Abdul, who got her start as a choreographer and Lakers cheerleader, will begin production this fall on two fitness tapes, one an hourlong dance-aerobic workout and the other a 30-to-45 minute program for kids. . . . Ike Turner speaks about his turbulent marriage and alleged beatings of Tina Turner--chronicled in the film “What’s Love Got to Do With It”--on “The Jerry Springer Show” season premiere on Monday. Turner, who is attempting a comeback, also will perform--his first national television performance in several years--and will introduce his new fiancee. . . . “The Inner Light,” an episode of the syndicated TV show “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” won the 1993 Hugo Award for best dramatic science-fiction presentation at the 51st World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco. The award is usually given to a film.

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Quotable: “Any man would be mad to take me on--with all these children. And the last thing I need in my life right now is a madman.”

--Actress Mia Farrow, in an interview with Dublin’s Irish Independent newspaper.