MOVIESMacDowell’s Weekend: There was double good news...

MOVIES

MacDowell’s Weekend: There was double good news for Andie MacDowell, one of the stars of the newly released “Bad Girls,” who found herself featured in the weekend’s two top box-office attractions. Twentieth Century Fox’s film about the adventures of four women of the West was in the No. 1 spot during the weekend with $5 million in ticket sales, according to early industry estimates. Gramercy Pictures’ “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” in which MacDowell is featured with Hugh Grant, was in second place with $4.7 million. In third was a newcomer from director Matty Rich, Buena Vista’s “The Inkwell,” with $2.5 million. In fourth: Universal’s “The Paper,” with $2.4 million. TriStar’s “Cops & Robbersons” tied with Disney’s “D2 The Mighty Ducks” for fifth with $2.3 million. Overall, it was a slow weekend.

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The Quest for Johnny: Get ready to see a lot of Johnny Quest, that globe-trotting 12-year-old. Turner Broadcasting announced a series of projects featuring the kid-adventurer, his scientist dad and his best pal, all based on the original animated “Adventures of Johnny Quest” series. A live-action feature film is scheduled to begin production next year. Also slated for next year, an animated movie to premiere on TNT as well as an animated TV series, both to be produced by Hanna-Barbera. “The Adventures of Johnny Quest” first ran as a cartoon on ABC in 1964 and continued over the years on various networks. It was also adapted into a comic book.

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USC Film School to Cite Lucas: USC alum George Lucas will receive the first USC Entertainment Leadership Award at a gala 65th anniversary celebration for the USC School of Cinema-Television on June 1. The award honors a person who has made a profound impact on the entertainment industry. Others who have made such an impact take part in the event celebrating the school and its alumni. Steven Spielberg, philanthropist Barbara Davis and producer David L. Wolper will chair the evening. Kirk Douglas, Harrison Ford, Art Buchwald, Sidney Poitier and Ron Howard will be among the guests.

TELEVISION

Response to Kushnick Suit: Robert Miller, vice president and publisher of Hyperion, said there is “no basis” for Helen Gorman Kushnick’s lawsuit over her depiction in its book, “The Late Shift,” on the machinations of the late-night television talk shows. “The facts in the book were appropriately researched and found to be fully supported,” Miller said in a statement issued by Hyperion, a division of Disney Book Publishing. Kushnick, Jay Leno’s former manager who briefly served as executive producer of “The Tonight Show,” claimed in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court that the book by New York Times television reporter Bill Carter portrays her as “mentally unfit and incompetent” and cites eight statements that Kushnick claims are “false and defamatory.”

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Roseanne-Free Week? Lonnie Lardner, entertainment reporter for KTTV-TV Channel 11’s “Good Day L.A.” is declaring this week a “Roseanne-free week.” Lardner is vowing not to mention Roseanne Arnold this week, reacting to what the reporter believes is a series of attempts by Arnold to manipulate the media. Lardner’s ire was raised last week by Arnold’s filing and subsequent withdrawal of a divorce proceeding against her husband, Tom. “Good Day L.A.’s” viewers are backing Lardner’s stand, an overwhelming majority agreeing with the Roseanne-free week in a non-scientific poll.

STAGE

Phantom of Vegas: Michael Crawford, who won acclaim as the masked man in “Phantom of the Opera,” will soon be on the Las Vegas stage. He’ll star in “EFX!”, a $30-million production to start next fall at the MGM Grand Hotel. The title takes its name from movie industry shorthand for “special effects.” Crawford will play “The Effects Master” and appear as Merlin the wizard, P. T. Barnum, Harry Houdini and H. G. Wells.

ART

Photo Auction Gets Surprise: A Man Ray photograph of a woman’s face and a carved African mask sold for $354,500 in a Christie’s auction house sale that set records for him and some of the century’s other major photographers. The 1926 picture “Black and White” sold for nearly twice the pre-sale estimate of up to $180,000, and beat Man Ray’s previous record of $222,500 for his triptych, “Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today.” Records also were set for Edward Weston, Lewis Hine, Eugene Atget and Henri Cartier-Bresson at last week’s sale, Christie’s auction house in New York said.

QUICK TAKES

Frank Sinatra, who collapsed onstage last month, canceled a performance at Radio City Music Hall Friday just moments before his show was to begin. The 78-year-old singer was suffering from an upper respiratory congestion and had been advised by his physician not to perform. . . . Comedian Ellen DeGeneres is joining the ranks of comics Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reiser--she’s writing a book, due out in the fall of 1995 from Bantam Books. “I hope to follow in the tradition of Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and Jackie Collins,” she said.