POP/ROCKLion’s Roar Bumps STP: The box-office success...

POP/ROCK

Lion’s Roar Bumps STP: The box-office success of “The Lion King” helped catapult the film’s soundtrack into the No. 1 position on the nation’s pop album chart, with sales last week topping 272,000 units--a 67% gain over the previous week and 105,000 units more than its closest competitor, Stone Temple Pilots’ “Purple,” which slips to No. 2. Meanwhile, sales for the soundtrack’s sister recording, “The Lion King Sing-Along,” jumped by 46%, pushing it from 78th place to No. 52 on Billboard magazine’s upcoming pop chart. Other big sellers this week include: country singer Alan Jackson’s “Who Am I?,” which enters at No. 7 with 84,000 units sold, and R&B; star Keith Sweat’s 81,000-selling “Get Up on It,” which lands at No. 8 during its first week in the stores.

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Tupac’s Legal File: Rapper Tupac Shakur, wearing a red bandanna and jersey, was in a New York courtroom this week where a detective testifying in a sodomy and sexual abuse case against the rapper said he didn’t know how a voice mailbox possibly containing messages to the rapper from the alleged victim were erased. Shakur’s defense attorney has charged that police “destroyed” several messages, in which, he said, the woman repeatedly thanked Shakur for letting her perform oral sex on him on a disco dance floor earlier that month. In Tuesday’s state Supreme Court hearing, Detective James Flaherty offered no explanation of how the messages were deleted, saying simply: “We tried to pull the messages back and they were gone.” Shakur, 22, and Charles Fuller, 23, have pleaded innocent to charges of sodomy and sexual abuse in the alleged November attack on a 20-year-old woman in Shakur’s hotel suite. . . . Elsewhere in New York on Tuesday, a minor traffic accident led to rapper Flavor Flav’s arrest on charges of driving after his license had been suspended 43 times. The Public Enemy star was arrested after he parked his car in the Bronx and hit a cab when he opened the door. Police learned he had no valid license as they filled out an accident report.

MOVIES

Entering a New Medium: Actor-director Clint Eastwood’s life and career will be the focus of a new CD-ROM to be released next year by the Bellevue, Wash.-based Starwave Corp. Billed as a “new kind of multimedia treatment,” as well as a “multileveled reference work,” the CD-ROM will chronicle Eastwood’s career in films and television through various clips, audio bites, photographs and rare behind-the-scenes footage. Eastwood himself will guide users through the product, commenting on film clips and other elements.

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Costner’s ‘Waterworld’: Production has begun in Hawaii on “Waterworld,” a Universal Pictures action-adventure starring Kevin Costner and directed by Kevin Reynolds. The film takes place in the future when the polar ice caps have melted and the Earth is covered in water. The studio is billing the film as a technical groundbreaker, noting that the action sequences will be filmed on unpredictable ocean waters. The film’s main set, built from 1,021 tons of steel, is nearly a quarter mile in circumference and rests upon steel flotation devices.

TELEVISION

New Kids’ Fare: The latest entry announced for the cable universe is Wam! America’s Youth Network, a 24-hour-a-day children’s channel featuring entertainment and educational programming aimed at 8- to 16-year-olds. Featuring a lineup specifically designed to meet the educational mandate of President Clinton’s anticipated “Goals 2000,” the Encore Media channel is set to launch nationally Sept. 12. Planned programming includes “Reel Learning,” a block of nature, science, history, geography and literature-based shows from 7 a.m.-3 p.m.; “after-school” fare including kids’ magazine shows, sport shows and adventure series from 3-7 p.m.; and internationally produced multicultural programs and family movies from 7-10 p.m.

QUICK TAKES

Pop Star Whitney Houston brought her husband, singer Bobby Brown, on stage during a Tuesday night concert in Atlanta to announce that the couple is expecting their second child. They have a 1-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina. . . . The Los Angeles County supervisors have passed a motion calling for Los Angeles public television stations to air the July 16 “Three Tenors” concert live along with the rest of the nation, as long as the concert sells out. The show is currently scheduled to air the next day in Los Angeles and Orange counties. . . . Due to popular demand, the Wilshire Theater production of “Forever Tango: The Eternal Dance” has been extended until July 31.

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Quotable: “I guess I’m going to lose at least a third of my fans, but . . . I think Elvis (Presley) was a person who came along at the right time. . . . Black people been goin’ out shakin’ their behind for centuries . . . and that’s all Elvis was doing, was copying that. And he was doing our kind of music. He was doing the Willie Mae Thornton (“Hound Dog”). That’s black music. So what am I supposed to get so excited about, man? I think all that stuff about saying he’s the king--that’s a piece of bunk.”

--Composer-singer Ray Charles on NBC’s “Now.”