TELEVISIONConan’s Report Card: NBC is content with...

TELEVISION

Conan’s Report Card: NBC is content with the performance of Conan O’Brien thus far, contrary to reports that the network is considering pulling the plug on the low-rated late-night talk-show host, according to Rick Ludwin, vice president of late-night programming. “We’re satisfied with the show and the growth it’s showing,” Ludwin told The Times. “Conan has improved as host, and the ratings (are increasing). We’ve said all along that what we wanted to see was growth--both creatively and in the ratings. It’s slow growth, but up is better than down, and we’re seeing signs that the college audience, who were the first to discover David Letterman, are tuning in to Conan.” Some sources speculate that O’Brien, whose 12:35 a.m. show is produced by “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels, will have another year to prove himself. Ludwin said there was “no magic date” for renewing O’Brien’s pact.

MOVIES

‘Bridges’ for Beresford, Eastwood: Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment confirmed Monday that Bruce Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy”) will direct and Clint Eastwood will star in the film version of Robert James Waller’s best-selling book, “The Bridges of Madison County.” The Warner Bros. Film will be produced by Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy (“The Color Purple”). . . . Meanwhile, Amblin also said Monday that it will withdraw all its films from distribution in Malaysia, which last month refused to show Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” unless several scenes depicting sex and violence were cut. “The reason for this decision is the irreconcilable gulf that exists between our belief in cultural and artistic freedom of expression and the Malaysian government’s desire to curtail that freedom through censorship,” Amblin said in a statement.

Wilder’s Austrian Homecoming: Director Billy Wilder got a warm reception when he returned over the weekend to his native Austria, in his first trip back since 1958. Wilder, 88, whose movies include “Some Like It Hot” and “Sunset Boulevard,” was one of tens of thousands of Jews to flee Vienna before Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. Wilder was visibly moved Sunday night by a toast by Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, who said he hoped Wilder would get to know “a new Austria.”

ART

Video Artist Picked for Biennale: Long Beach video artist Bill Viola, who was recently featured in a major exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art/San Diego, has been chosen to represent the United States next year at the prestigious Venice Biennale. Viola, who was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts, follows sculptor Louise Bourgeois, who represented the United States in 1993. Previous U.S. representatives include installation artist Jenny Holzer and painter Jasper Johns. Viola is said to be creating new site-specific video and sound installations for the Biennale called “Buried Secrets.”

Banned From Cuba: HIV-positive writer Mark Zolun, who collaborated with Los Angeles artist Robert Millar on 12 works selected for the fifth Havana Bienal, was denied entry into Cuba for Saturday’s opening of the exhibition. The country has had a strict policy of mandatory HIV testing and quarantines for those with HIV and AIDS. In the works, which are accompanied by Zolun’s text about homosexuality and living with HIV, Millar makes paint by mixing his own HIV-negative blood with Zolun’s. Millar refused to attend the exhibition after Zolun was denied entry. The artists have offered to donate the works “to the people of Cuba,” through the country’s contemporary art center, the Centro Wilfredo Lam. Other current and former Los Angeles artists selected for the Bienal, which runs through June 30, are Karen Atkinson, Ed Bereal, Carl Cheng, Albert Chong, Johnny Coleman, Richard Glazer Danay, John Outterbridge, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Lezley Saar and Pat Ward Williams.

QUICK TAKES

“Good Advice,” the TV sitcom starring Shelley Long and Treat Williams, returns to CBS’ schedule on May 23 at 9:30 p.m. Teri Garr joins the cast playing Long’s sister. . . . Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” was named the year’s best Broadway play and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was selected as best musical by New York’s Outer Critics Circle. . . . Peggy Lee received the fourth annual Ella Fitzgerald Lifetime Achievement Award Monday night from the L.A. charitable group Society of Singers.