MOVIES - Sept. 20, 1993

Strike 1: Columbia’s adventure movie “Striking Distance,” starring Bruce Willis, outran “The Fugitive” this weekend to lead the box-office pack with a gross of $8.7 million, according to early industry estimates. The new release forced Paramount’s “The Fugitive” into second place for the first time since it opened seven weeks ago. The Harrison Ford thriller took in $7.4 million. In third was MGM’s “Undercover Blues” with $3 million. “True Romance” from Morgan Creek was fourth with $2.7 million and Warner Bros.’ “The Man Without a Face” was fifth with $2.4 million. Columbia’s “The Age of Innocence,” the love story with Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer, had an impressive opening in limited release, grossing $2.3 million in only 83 theaters for a per-screen average of $28,000; it took sixth place.

Silence Is Golden: Silent-movie actress Lillian Gish, who died this year at age 99, has left a $1.2-million trust fund to help the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquire and preserve films starring her and her sister, Dorothy. The fund also will help pay for the maintenance of the museum’s collection of films directed by D. W. Griffith, which is the world’s largest archive of his material. The Gish sisters began their film careers under Griffith in 1912.

THE ARTS

Farewell Festival: The 1993 Los Angeles Festival came to a close Sunday with a program that played to overflow audiences at Leimert Park Village in southwest Los Angeles. The day ended with “Crossing L.A.: The Africans Are Coming,” a celebration of African culture through music and dance. Highlights of the day included jazz musician Horace Tapscott and the Afrikan People’s Arkestra and poetry readings. Festival artistic director Peter Sellars said Sunday was packed, although exact attendance figures were unavailable. Of the entire 30-day festival, Sellars said: “It was more successful than we could ever have imagined. We saw that the city was hungry for this.” He said the festival was well-attended overall; figures will be released later this week. Some festival events are continuing--”The Persians,” directed by Sellars, opens at the Mark Taper Forum on Sept. 30.

POP/ROCK

Safe Shows: Garth Brooks held a news conference in Texas on Saturday to reassure his fans that this weekend’s concerts at Texas Stadium will be safe, despite the news that 16 workers suffered minor injuries while setting up the show in Dallas. The workers were injured when a metal frame built to hold lights and sound gear above the stage and audience buckled. Yet the shows, featuring special effects including wind, fire and rain, will go on as scheduled Thursday through Sunday. The concerts will be taped for a special on NBC in May.

Fined: The lead singer of Ugly Kid Joe pleaded no contest to a charge of disorderly conduct in Columbus, Ohio, and was ordered to pay a $100 fine and court costs. William W. Crane IV, 25, of Ventura, had been charged with felonious assault and inciting violence for allegedly encouraging a concert crowd to attack security guards during a concert Aug. 27 at Ohio’s Cooper Stadium. Prosecutors agreed to a lesser charge because a tape of the concert conflicted with the evidence supporting the felony charges.

TELEVISION

Healthy Coverage Roger Mudd will host “The Health Quarterly” Tuesday on KCET at 9 p.m. The program investigates the health care lobby and its impact on President Clinton’s health care bill. . . . KCET will provide live coverage of Clinton’s speech before a joint session of Congress announcing details of his health care plan Wednesday on the “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” at 6 p.m. . . . Dan Rather and Connie Chung will anchor CBS News’ two-hour “CBS News Special Report” followed by a special edition of “48 Hours,” and Tom Brokaw will anchor a one-hour NBC News special on Wednesday following the presidential speech and the Republican response. . . . The White House is expected to announce a Thursday prime-time town meeting with President Clinton on ABC, with Ted Koppel as moderator, probably from Tampa.

Murph the Huckster: Which celebrity pitchers do Americans believe the most? Candice Bergen, TV’s Murphy Brown, and Bill Cosby, according to a recent poll. Bergen, who does her bit for Sprint, became the first woman to hold the top spot in the annual study by Video Storyboard Tests. Behind Bergen and the Cos, seller of Jell-O, are Cher, Cindy Crawford, Burt Reynolds, Regis Philbin, Susan Lucci, Sally Struthers, Ray Charles (last year’s No. 1) and Kathie Lee Gifford.

QUICK TAKES

Sophia Loren turns 59 today, and TNT celebrates her birthday with a marathon of four of her films. “The Pride and the Passion” (1957), “More Than a Miracle” (1967), “Lady Liberty” (1972) and “Five Miles to Midnight” (1963) will air back to back on the cable network tonight. . . . Bill Cosby will perform at a benefit concert Oct. 10 at USC to help establish a minority screenwriting program at the university’s school of cinema and television in memory of his father-in-law, Guy Alexander Hanks.