MOVIESMurphy’s Management Switch: Actor Eddie Murphy plans...

MOVIES

Murphy’s Management Switch: Actor Eddie Murphy plans to sign with Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency, following a long association with International Creative Management. Sources say the deal will be announced early next week. Murphy, who became a superstar in the 1980s with hits such as “48 HRS.” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” is said to be unhappy with the recent course of his career. His latest movie, “Beverly Hills Cop 3,” has taken in a disappointing $39.4 million to date. The actor is said to be getting $12 million for a remake of “The Nutty Professor” for Imagine Films/Universal Pictures, and otherwise receives $15 million for sequels. In January he plans to shoot “Vampire in Brooklyn” for Paramount and director Wes Craven. CAA and Murphy’s representatives declined comment on the move. At CAA, Murphy would be represented by a team consisting of Chairman Michael S. Ovitz, President Ron Meyer, Richard Lovett and David O’Connor.

TELEVISION

Staying at CNN: Despite offers of high-profile foreign correspondent jobs from ABC, CBS and NBC, award-winning CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour has signed a new multi-year contract to stay with the all-news cable network as senior international correspondent. Amanpour--who this year became the first TV journalist to win the Peabody, Polk and DuPont awards in the same year--is believed to have turned down the more lucrative network offers out of loyalty to CNN and the stories she’s currently covering.

* First Out of the Gate: The 90-minute premiere of Aaron Spelling’s new “Melrose Place” spinoff, “Models Inc.,” won its time period by a slight margin Wednesday night, according to overnight ratings from the nation’s top 31 markets. The Fox show attracted an estimated 18% of the available audience, to top ABC’s 17%, NBC’s 16% and CBS’ 12%. The show had a more comfortable margin in Los Angeles, where it drew 25% of the audience, an estimated 750,960 homes. The closest competitor locally was ABC, with about 18% of viewing homes.

* Moving to NYC: After eight years in Los Angeles, the MTV Video Music Awards will return to its roots at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in September. Executives at MTV, which is headquartered in New York, have been meeting with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to discuss ways to give one of the music industry’s premier award shows a New York flavor by staging events throughout the city and covering them with live remotes.

RADIO

Asian-Language Radio: Four Southern California radio stations have joined the Asia One Network, the country’s first Asian-language network, with three of the stations beginning gradual program changes today. KMAX (Pasadena), KBAX (Orange County) and KAXX (Ventura County), three stations that trimulcast on the 107.1 FM frequency, will join the network along with KWIZ-FM (96.7), the first Asian-formatted FM station in Orange County, which will continue its Vietnamese and Tagalog programming. The trimulcast stations previously featured gospel music along with some Asian programming. Initial programming changes today include a daily 7-9 a.m. Japanese-language drive-time show featuring news and weather. Mandarin- and Korean-language programming will be added later this summer.

LEGAL FILE

Sly’s Suit: Sylvester Stallone has sued a New York attorney for libel, accusing lawyer Edward D. Fagan of making false allegations that the actor and part-time painter had engaged in a fraudulent art transaction. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, alleges that Fagan defamed Stallone by proposing an article to the Star tabloid about Stallone cheating a woman out of three paintings she had owned and which were painted by Stallone before he became a famous actor. The story was never published. Stallone, denies such an incident occurred. He seeks $50 million in damages.

* Hammer Update: A Los Angeles judge has temporarily allayed fears that the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center might lose half of its art collection in a $400-million lawsuit. But the museum plans to proceed with a Nov. 11 auction of one of its most valuable assets--an illustrated manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci, valued at $10 million--because many aspects of the complicated case are still unresolved and a reserve fund may be needed to pay any legal judgments. In a summary judgment issued Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Cappai dismissed claims against the museum and Occidental Petroleum Corp. made by Joan Weiss, the niece and sole heir of the late oil man’s wife, Frances Hammer. Weiss, whose suit contends that Frances Hammer was cheated of her fair share of community property, including half of the art collection, plans to appeal the judge’s decision, her attorney said. Weiss’ additional claims--against Armand Hammer’s grandson, Michael Hammer, the Armand Hammer Foundation and a group of attorneys who advised Frances Hammer--are scheduled to go to trial on July 11.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Not Up to No. 1: For only the second time in the competition’s 36-year history, a tough jury of former winners declined to award first prizes in either piano or violin in the prestigious Tchaikovsky international competition, which concluded in Moscow on Wednesday. The $4,000 second prize for piano went to Nikolai Luganski, 22, of Russia; in violin, 17-year-old Jennifer Koh of Chicago shared second place with Anastasia Chebotareva, 21, of Russia. Koh also received an award for best Tchaikovsky performance by a violinist, a special artistry award and an award for being the youngest performer in the finals. The Tchaikovsky competition, which helped launch the careers of Van Cliburn and Vladimir Ashkenazy, is held in Moscow every four years.