THE ARTSHealing Arts: Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight:...

THE ARTS

Healing Arts: Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” a collage of monologues about the Los Angeles riots and their aftermath that opened last summer at the Mark Taper Forum, has its official New York premiere today at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. After closing there April 3, the show then moves to Broadway’s Cort Theatre for an April 17 opening. According to New York Newsday theater critic and columnist Linda Winer, the George C. Wolfe-directed N.Y. show is radically different from the Emily Mann-directed L.A. version, including only a handful of the characters seen here. It now focuses less on the specific events of the riots, and turns instead to the events before and afterward.

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Rockettes High-Stepping to L.A.: “The Great Radio City Music Hall Spectacular,” starring actress Susan Anton and the world-famous Rockettes, will play a limited engagement at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion June 21-26. The stop is part of the Rockettes’ 40-city 60th-anniversary tour and celebrates the highlights of stage productions performed by the precision dance team over the years. The show is directed and choreographed by Tony and Emmy Award-winner Joe Layton, and includes costumes by Bob Mackie.

MOVIES

Just a ‘Normal 11-Year-Old’: Young Oscar-winner Anna Paquin won’t have much time to celebrate when she returns to her New Zealand home next week--she’s off to school camp. “She will take it in her stride,” said Paul Drummond, Paquin’s headmaster. “She will get back to school and get back to normal. Her classmates will be thrilled to see her again. She’s just a normal 11-year-old girl.” Drummond said his Hutt Intermediate School erupted at the news of Paquin’s best supporting actress win for “The Piano”: “I heard it first down a corridor. I could hear teachers still working screaming from the other end of the building. Then the phone calls started coming in.” Paquin, who charmed TV viewers with her breathless gulps after winning her Academy Award Monday, was selected from among 5,000 girls to play in “The Piano.” To prepare, she had to learn a Scottish accent as well as sign language to communicate with her mute mother in the film. Friends said that Paquin would probably have a future film career, but that school would have to come first.

TV & RADIO

Limbaugh Watch: Florida lawmakers are putting the squeeze on the citrus commissioners who hired Rush Limbaugh as Florida orange juice’s new pitchman. A state Senate committee showed its displeasure with the conservative commentator’s $1-million contract by holding up the confirmation of three appointees to the Florida Citrus Commission. “We’re looking for people who will present the best possible image for Florida citrus--not people who will engender hate, disregard for minorities, or represent any political philosophy,” Sen. Peter Weinstein said. “I just wonder what prompted them to hire someone so unbelievably controversial, rather than a spokesperson who more accurately reflects the mainstream thinking in this country.” Senate Agriculture Chairman Mark Foley defended the choice as good business, based on the ratings of Limbaugh’s syndicated talk show.

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Sorry, Letterman Fans: Tickets to David Letterman’s May 9-13 Los Angeles stint have already been snapped up. CBS reports that more than 15,000 requests have been received for the 2,000 seats available for “Late Show” tapings at CBS’ Television City studios. “We’ve filled our seats--we don’t want everybody to waste their postage,” a CBS spokeswoman said.

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Susan Rook to Replace ‘Sonya’: CNN is launching an interactive talk show, “TalkBack Live,” in late August. The daily program will include a studio audience and call-ins from viewers, with CNN anchor Susan Rook as the host. To make room for the program, CNN is canceling its long-running talk show, “Sonya Live,” hosted by Sonya Friedman.