MOVIESThe Next ‘Aladdin’?: “The Lion King,” a...

MOVIES

The Next ‘Aladdin’?: “The Lion King,” a new animated Walt Disney film featuring the voices of Jeremy Irons, Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin and Robert Guillaume, begins an exclusive one-week run at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood on June 15, prior to its nationwide release June 24. Featuring songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, the film is an allegorical tale of a young lion cub named Simba and his heroic journey to claim his destined role as king of the jungle.

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Responding to ‘Schindler’s’ Incident: State Assembly members Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) and Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), upset over a recent incident in which 69 Oakland students were evicted after laughing during a showing of Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List,” have asked the State Board of Education to prove it is implementing a 1992 state law requiring that students in grades 7-12 be taught about the Holocaust and slavery. Said Katz: “The purpose of this law is to make sure children understand exactly what happened . . . and to teach them tolerance.”

THE ARTS

Music Prize: Finnish pianist Ralf Gothoni has been named winner of the $500,000 Irving S. Gilmore Artist Award, a piano competition so secretive that the contestants aren’t even aware that they are in the running. The 48-year-old Gothoni is the second recipient of the lucrative 2-year-old prize. David Pocock, director of Detroit’s Gilmore Festival, said award organizers go to such lengths to keep the competition secret that they even lured Gothoni to the United States last year by arranging a concert in Nashville, so judges could secretly assess him. Gothoni will receive about $115,000 in cash and $400,000 more in management services.

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Vaulting Into La Mirada: Tom McCoy and Cathy Rigby, the married couple who have produced national tours with former gymnast Rigby in “Peter Pan” and “Annie Get Your Gun,” are taking over the 1,264-seat La Mirada Theatre’s professional series starting next fall. Slated for their first season are Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Nov. 4-20), “Forever Plaid” (Jan. 6-22), Paul Osborn’s “On Borrowed Time” (March 3-19) and “The Wizard of Oz” (April 28-May 14), which probably won’t star Rigby, who has done the show elsewhere.

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Taper Slot Filled: Lisa Loomer’s “The Waiting Room” will replace “The Heavenly Theatre” as the Mark Taper Forum’s summer show, July 31-Sept. 25. Other than a couple of nonfiction productions, “The Waiting Room” will be the first play by a Los Angeles-based woman to be produced on the Taper mainstage since Doris Baizley’s “Bugs/Guns” in 1977. Set in a modern doctor’s waiting room, the play features characters from several centuries.

TELEVISION

Porn Draws Ire: A small Canadian firm is beaming hard-core pornographic movies on satellite into American homes, side-stepping U.S. obscenity laws that put a similar American venture out of business. In two months, the Ottawa-based Exxxtasy TV has signed up 18,000 U.S. subscribers for its $220-per-year service. But the thriving company has drawn the wrath of the American Family Assn., a watchdog group that has urged the U.S. Justice Department to pull the plug on the service by prosecuting the satellite owner on federal obscenity charges. In 1990, a U.S. satellite company also called Exxxtasy closed after it was prosecuted by the Bush Administration.

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KNBC Sued: Darlene Leon, a Banning nurse who was cleared last year of allegations that she killed 17 terminally ill hospice patients, has sued KNBC-TV Channel 4 and others for $10 million for branding her the “Angel of Death.” “The content of the (KNBC) broadcasts contained real and fictitious statements which caused an unsavory inference of (Leon’s) guilt and further made public those facts of (her) life which were private and protected by her constitutional right to privacy,” the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges. A KNBC spokeswoman said the station had not yet been served the complaint and could not comment. Also named in the suit is a coroner and a local nurses group.

POP/ROCK

Paisley Fades: Prince’s Paisley Park Records, whose artists include George Clinton and Mavis Staples, is shutting down. The closure is said to be a “mutual agreement” between the symbol man’s Paisley Park Enterprises and partner Warner Bros. Records. Prince will continue to produce and record with Warner’s, but the future of Paisley Park artists “will be announced at a later date.”

QUICK TAKES

United Artists is holding an open call at the Hollywood Athletic Club today to find “the perfect actress” to play British punk comic book heroine “Tank Girl” (a.k.a. Rebecca Buck) for its upcoming film of the same title. “Ultra-hip,” twentysomething hopefuls are sought for the character, who is described as “sexy, smart and irreverent with the rugged rock ‘n’ roll renegade spirit.” . . . Alternative rock group Alice in Chains’ “Jar of Flies” sold an estimated 142,000 copies during its first week out to snatch the No. 1 position on the nation’s pop charts away from reigning pop queen Mariah Carey. . . . “Tom,” a new comedy series starring Tom Arnold, premieres March 2 at 8:30 p.m. on CBS.