TV & RADIOGains for Women: Women are...

TV & RADIO

Gains for Women: Women are making strides in network news, according to an annual review by the Center for Media and Public Affairs. The nonpartisan research group found that women reported 23% of all network stories last year, up from 13% in 1990. The group also found that 11 of the 50 most visible reporters on national network newscasts were women, with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell leading both men and women with 175 appearances last year. Minorities didn’t fare as well: only CBS’s Giselle Fernandez (24th) and Bill Whitaker (25th) were listed among the 50 most visible correspondents. CBS was the most diversified, with women reporting 34% of stories on the “CBS Evening News,” compared with 19% on ABC’s “World News Tonight” and 16% on the “NBC Nightly News.” Racial minority groups reported 24% of CBS’s news, compared with 10% at ABC and 4% at NBC.

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Heeeeere’s the Video!: If you’re not happy with the current late-night fare, a home-video collection of Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” episodes will be available in May. The four-volume set will feature episodes hand-picked by Carson and compiled by former “Tonight Show” producer Jeff Sotzing. Released by Buena Vista Home Video, the tapes will span Carson’s “Tonight Show” career from the 1960s through the ‘90s, and include sketches, bloopers, behind-the-scenes footage and his entire farewell episode. The cost: $14.99 each or $59.99 for the boxed set. Carson Productions and Buena Vista, which are billing the tapes as “the definitive Johnny Carson collection,” say these will be the only Carson episodes ever released on video.

MOVIES

Spielberg Watch: Steven Spielberg won’t allow his multiple Oscar nominee, “Schindler’s List” to be shown in the Philippines because censors there ordered cuts on nude and sex scenes. The Movie Television Review Classification Board’s order drew protests in Manila Wednesday, with one senator urging that the board be abolished. The board objected to three specific scenes, two showing women’s breasts and one showing Schindler making love with his mistress. Rather than make the cuts, which would have amounted to about 30 seconds of the three-hour film, Spielberg withdrew the picture from Philippine cinemas. Philippine President Fidel Ramos promised to look into the board’s decision.

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Not Making an Oscar Visit: Guests will be coming to the 66th annual Academy Awards from all over the world, but two dancers from the Ballet Nacional de Cuba won’t make the March 21 date. The U.S. State Department has denied their visas because most Cuban dancers must give some of their earnings to the government. The dancers would have performed with other top dancers from countries including Russia and China, in a ballet highlighting the nominees for best music score. Also sending its regrets to Oscar: the Maori canoe crew from “The Piano.” Not enough money could be raised to get the boat and its crew to Los Angeles.

POP/ROCK

Rally Counters Pearl Jam Show: A coalition of Pensacola, Fla., churches is planning a “Positive Life Rally” on Wednesday in response to a Pearl Jam concert in the city that night. The concert will benefit the abortion rights group Rock for Choice and will mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Dr. David Gunn outside a Pensacola abortion clinic. Rally organizer David Hutchinson says the demonstration is not to protest the concert, but to encourage anti-abortion youth to express their views. “We’re saying both sides are extreme, and we’re saying don’t kill, either way,” he said. Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis says the band will participate in future Rock for Choice events. “We would have been surprised if there wasn’t a counter demonstration,” he says.

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No Hard Feelings: Frank Sinatra has no hard feelings about being cut off abruptly while accepting a Grammy Legends award during Tuesday night’s Grammy telecast, a spokeswoman for the singer says, confirming reports that Sinatra’s people were involved in the decision to end his speech. “The most important thing about the evening is that Frank Sinatra had a wonderful time and feels positive about everything that went on,” the spokeswoman said Wednesday. “The combined production teams were sensitive to the timing of the show. He was having a great time . . . (and) was very moved by the tribute.”

QUICK TAKES

Los Angeles gang members from the Bloods and the Crips will discuss the controversy behind rap lyrics on today’s “Live in L.A.” on KCAL-TV’s Channel 9. Featured from 10 to 11 a.m. will be young rappers who participated on the album series “Bangin’ on Wax,” which united rival gang members through rap music. . . . Radio station The Wave (97.4 FM) hosts its second annual Radiothon to benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles starting at 6 a.m. today and running through 10 a.m. Friday. “Entertainment Tonight’s” John Tesh hosts the entire 28-hour event, which features celebrity guests and auction items. . . . Actor Larry Hagman appears on today’s “Montel Williams Show” to protest a 10-story weather radar station erected by the U.S. government near his Ojai home. Hagman says the station emits cancer-causing radiation. . . . A day after his Grammy tribute, singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield received another Lifetime Achievement Award--from the performing rights group BMI. The award was presented in recognition of “his words, his music and his life.”