LEGAL FILETur Wins Suit: A Los Angeles...

LEGAL FILE

Tur Wins Suit: A Los Angeles jury has sided with helicopter pilot-reporter Bob Tur, ruling Tuesday that he was the victim of malicious prosecution by the Los Angeles Fire Department and that its personnel had made false statements about him. The lawsuit stemmed from a 1991 incident in which the fire department alleged that Tur, while shooting for KCOP-TV, had endangered the lives of those involved in the rescue of a fisherman on the rocks off San Pedro. As a result of the department’s complaint, Tur’s pilot certificate was revoked, and he was charged with criminal interference. The criminal charges were later dismissed. Tuesday’s ruling could lead to the certificate being returned to Tur, who, accompanied by another pilot, is currently a helicopter reporter for KCBS-TV.

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Copperfield Sued: The daughter of the late director Orson Welles has filed a copyright infringement suit against David Copperfield over the magician’s use of portions of a Welles film for a card trick in his act. Beatrice Welles’ lawsuit, which calls her father’s work “the magic film,” asks a judge to bar Copperfield from using the Welles footage and also seeks unspecified damages. The suit also names CBS, which aired a Copperfield special containing the trick, in which Copperfield and an audience member interact with the Welles film.

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Uneasy Riders: Veteran actor Rip Torn, who stars as Garry Shandling’s sidekick on HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show,” has filed a slander lawsuit against Dennis Hopper for comments Hopper made on NBC’s “Tonight Show” last May. According to the Los Angeles lawsuit, Hopper said Torn once pulled a knife on him after a dispute on the set of “Easy Rider,” the 1969 counterculture film directed by Hopper about a couple of laid-back rebels on a cross-country motorcycle odyssey. “We have provided Mr. Hopper and his lawyer with sworn statements by three witnesses who said it was the other way around,” said Torn’s lawyer.

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More Briefs: A Chilean promotions company has sued Michael Jackson in Los Angeles for $5 million, accusing the pop star of fraud and contract violations for canceling two South American concerts last year after complaining of a pulled back muscle.... Gary Zimmerman, a struggling songwriter who had claimed singer Billy Joel stole his work for Joel’s hits “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “River of Dreams,” has dropped his $10-million New York copyright infringement lawsuit.... “Woman With Dark Eyes,” a $7-million Picasso painting that was stolen from the Modern Art Museum in Oslo, Sweden, last November, was recovered in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday. Three Swedes were arrested. They had been trying to resell the painting in Brussels, police said.

POP/ROCK

Live Nirvana Album Planned: A double album of approximately 30 live Nirvana songs is tentatively scheduled for an early November release on DGC Records, seven months after the April suicide of lead singer Kurt Cobain. The album, titled “Verse Chorus Verse,” will include the band’s entire “MTV Unplugged” acoustic special taped in November, 1993, as well as previously unreleased live performances from 1989 to 1994. Songs not contained on previous Nirvana albums will also be included. The album is being compiled by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, drummer Dave Grohl and DGC executive Mark Kates.

TELEVISION

Inside the LAPD: The daily activities of the Los Angeles Police Department will be the focus of “L.A.P.D.,” a new half-hour syndicated reality show planned for next fall. The show, from MGM Television, is billed as “the first real inside look at the world’s most well-known police organization.” Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams called the show “a window through which the viewer will be able to see the truth of department activities. The observation will give the community at large a far better understanding of the realities of police work in Los Angeles.”

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Moving to Cable: Nearly two decades of ABC’s “The Barbara Walters Specials” are being repackaged into a weekly series set to air on cable’s Lifetime starting Sept. 14. “Barbara Walters: Interviews of a Lifetime,” will originally air at 8 p.m. Wednesdays, then will move to Friday nights at 8 starting Oct. 21.... All 72 episodes of “Roc,” the recently canceled Fox series starring Charles S. Dutton, have been acquired by cable’s Black Entertainment Television. BET will air the shows weeknights at 5 p.m., starting Sept. 26 ... If you’ll miss Michael Moriarty when Sam Waterston takes over the prosecutor’s role on NBC’s “Law & Order” this season, cable’s A&E; has acquired early episodes of the series and will air them weeknights at 8, beginning Sept. 5.

QUICK TAKES

Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese quit the nation’s best-selling rock band on Wednesday to formally study music. The split was amicable, according to a statement released by the Seattle-based band.... Britain’s Prince Charles has confirmed he will attend the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Nov. 2 performance of “Henry VI--The Battle for the Throne,” a UK/LA festival event at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.