THE ARTSGuggenheim Goes to Court: New York’s...

THE ARTS

Guggenheim Goes to Court: New York’s Guggenheim Museum was scheduled to start court proceedings Monday to reclaim a Marc Chagall watercolor that was stolen 25 years ago and found in 1985 hanging in a Fifth Avenue apartment. Museum officials say the small 1912 gouache painting was stolen sometime between 1965 and 1967. Jules and Rachell Lubell bought the painting from an art gallery for $17,000 in 1967, and say they had no idea the canvas, which is now estimated to be worth $200,000, was stolen. The jury trial will focus on whether a good-faith purchaser of a painting who buys from a reputable dealer, who was also a good-faith buyer, should be forced to return the artwork to the original owner. The Guggenheim, which failed to report the painting missing after its theft because it feared adverse publicity, discovered the work in 1985 after Rachell Lubell sought an appraisal of the work from Sotheby’s auction house. No arrests have ever been made in the theft.

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‘Crazy’ Songs at the Playhouse: The long-running Los Angeles musical “Crazy Words, Crazy Tunes,” featuring funny and silly songs from the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s, moves to the Westwood Playhouse for two weeks, Jan. 11-23. The limited engagement reunites the original cast, which debuted the full-evening production at Woodland Hills’ Center Stage Theatre two years ago.

POP/ROCK

$3.5 Million Donated in Streisand’s Name: In honor of Barbra Streisand’s upcoming New Year’s appearances at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand, impresario Kirk Kerkorian’s Lincy Foundation will donate $3.5 million to some of Streisand’s favorite causes. Among the grants are a total of $2 million to eight AIDS groups including the American Foundation for AIDS Research, AIDS Project Los Angeles and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, plus $200,000 to the UCLA School of Medicine to set up a Streisand research fund in women’s cardiology. Kerkorian calls the donations a salute to Streisand’s own fund-raising accomplishments.

MOVIES

Dietrich’s Grave Vandalized: Marlene Dietrich’s grave in Berlin was desecrated and covered in excrement on Sunday, a day before the anniversary of the actress-singer’s birth. A police spokesman said the words “fur-wearing slut” were also scrawled in red paint by the unidentified vandals on the tombstone in the Schoeneberg cemetery. The actress died in May last year and was buried in her native Berlin. She had become a U.S. citizen after spurning a Nazi offer to return to Germany.

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More Thumbs Up: Popular television film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert have joined the Los Angeles and New York critics groups and the National Board of Review in picking Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” as the year’s best film. The critics will name their picks on “Siskel’s & Ebert’s 10 Best Films of the Year,” airing Sunday on KABC-TV Channel 7 at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. The critics differed on some of their picks, but in addition to “Schindler’s List,” they both selected “The Piano,” “The Fugitive,” “The Joy Luck Club” and “Menace II Society.”

QUICK TAKES

NBC will introduce its new sitcom “The Good Life,” starring stand-up comic John Caponera, with a special preview on Jan. 3. The show will move to its regular 8:30 Tuesday time slot the next evening. The show replaces “Getting By,” which moves to Saturday to replace “Cafe Americain,” which replaces “The Second Half” on Tuesdays. . . . Fox-TV will not air a sneak preview of Henry Winkler’s new comedy, “Monty,” on Jan. 9 as previously announced. The show will now premiere Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. in its regular time slot. . . . Courtney Love, organizer of tonight’s concert at the Troubadour in West Hollywood to benefit the watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, has bowed out of the show due to recording commitments. Those who will appear include X, Henry Rollins, Grant Lee Buffalo and That Dog. . . . Film actress Kyra Sedgwick has been set for the co-starring role of the college student who accuses her professor of sexual harassment in the West Coast premiere of David Mamet’s “Oleanna,” opening Feb. 4 at the Tiffany Theater.