MOVIESExpanded ‘Woodstock’: Warner Bros.’ 1970 Academy Award-winning...

MOVIES

Expanded ‘Woodstock’: Warner Bros.’ 1970 Academy Award-winning documentary, “Woodstock,” is returning to the screen this month in a new, four-hour director’s cut featuring a completely remixed soundtrack and additional concert footage from Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Creedence Clearwater Revival. “When we made this film . . . there were so many performances that we loved but couldn’t include because the length of the film was already over three hours,” said director Michael Wadleigh, who worked on the expanded cut with his original sound supervisor, Larry Johnson, and original editor Jere Huggins. “Now we’ve been given the opportunity to go back and include some of this wonderful ‘extra’ material, much of it from performers who are no longer living but whose music continues to influence us.” The new version premieres June 29 in Los Angeles and New York and may expand to other markets at a later date.

* Memories of a Star: Personal memorabilia from the estate of the late “Gone With the Wind” star Clark Gable, including his monogrammed bathrobe (estimated to bring $6,000 to $8,000) and a set of three leather suitcases bearing the initials CG ($2,000 to $4,000), go on the auction block in New York Thursday at Christie’s East. Also to be offered is a rare cast photograph from the set of Gable’s last film, “The Misfits,” signed by Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, John Huston and Montgomery Clift ($3,000 to $5,000); and the actor’s initialed gaming case, featuring carved wooden compartments containing poker chips, playing cards, dice and a roulette wheel ($1,000 to $15,000).

TELEVISION

Weekend Anchor Named: Michael Scott, a reporter for the syndicated show “Entertainment Tonight,” will replace Hosea Sanders as KCBS-TV’s weekend anchor effective June 15. Scott will co-anchor the early and late evening “Action News” newscasts with Penny Griego and will also serve as a general assignment reporter for weekday “Action News” broadcasts. When Sanders, one of the few local black male anchors, announced he was leaving the station for a weekday anchor job in Chicago, community leaders said the dearth of local black anchors was a result of continued racism. Scott, who is also African American, has held previous weekday anchor jobs in Omaha.

* Black TV Pilots: The Black Filmmaker Foundation will celebrate African American achievement in the television industry with its first Festival of Network Television Pilots, Saturday at the Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills and Sunday at the Museum of Tolerance. Saturday’s program starts at 1 p.m. and includes screenings of three drama pilots and eight sitcom pilots from leading black TV producers; Sunday’s slate features the producers in a 3 p.m. panel discussion on “African Americans in Television: The State of the Art & the Business.” “This is an exciting time for African American television professionals,” said Karen Horne, Black Filmmaker Foundation/Los Angeles director. “Today, greater numbers of African American producers are not only creating shows, but reflecting a broader spectrum of the black experience through their work.” Only one of the festival’s featured pilots, however, an NBC drama called “Uptown Undercover,” has been picked up for the upcoming season.

* Classical Videos: Among the myriad of new cable offerings in the works for next year is the Classic Music Channel, a 24-hour service offering classical music, ballet and opera, as well as blues, jazz, Latin music, Broadway show tunes and film soundtracks, all transformed into short-form music videos. Also planned for the channel is a home-shopping service for classical CDs and videos. The channel is headed by Peter J. Brightman, who has staged concerts by musical stars including Ella Fitzgerald, Michael Jackson, Willie Nelson, Miles Davis and Tony Bennett. Brightman describes the planned channel as “MTV for the rest of us.”

* New Country Showcase: Country music fans get a new weekly TV showcase this week with the premiere of “ABC in Concert Country,” a Saturday night spinoff of the network’s Friday night pop/rock showcase “ABC in Concert.” The inaugural 1:30 a.m. broadcast features concert and interview footage from George Strait, Kathy Mattea, Lee Roy Parnell and Neal McCoy, plus a performance by the program’s weekly host, Billy Dean. Trisha Yearwood will be the featured artist for the program’s second outing June 11, which also will premiere Garth Brooks’ new music video, “Red Strokes.”

QUICK TAKES

Shock jock Howard Stern has sold the TV broadcast rights to his syndicated radio show to cable’s E! Entertainment Television, which will begin airing the controversial show in a pared-down half-hour format in mid-June. The cable network will use six cameras to film the daily morning show at New York’s WXRK-FM studio. . . . After previous stints hosting NBC’s All-Star pregame and postgame programs, Bob Costas gets his first play-by-play assignment covering the 65th Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh on July 12. . . . The Benedictine Monks of Santa Domingo De Silos, whose interpretations of Gregorian chants have been a surprise chart-topping hit, will perform June 10 on TV’s “ABC in Concert.” . . . As expected, the Universal Amphitheatre engagement for the Tony-winning Broadway musical “The Who’s Tommy” has been extended for two weeks, through Aug. 14. Tickets for the added shows go on sale Sunday.