TELEVISION - Aug. 27, 1994

TV Blues: The House of Blues announced plans Friday to produce and distribute 22 episodes of a weekly concert series, “Live From the House of Blues,” for cable TV this fall. Negotiations are under way with several cable networks. In addition to the routinely sold-out House of Blues club on the Sunset Strip, there are venues in New Orleans, Massachusetts and, soon, New York. The House of Blues will internally produce the program and is planning to air each show simultaneously on radio stations nationwide.

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Dueling Roseannes: The network race is on to turn Roseanne and her rocky romance with Tom Arnold into a made-for-TV movie. NBC has ordered “Roseanne and Tom: A Hollywood Marriage,” starring Patrika Darbo (“Corrina, Corrina”) and Stephen Lee (“Little White Lies”). Fox already is readying a TV movie starring Denny Dillon (the secretary from HBO’s “Dream On”). It’s scheduled to begin shooting Wednesday for an early fall broadcast. The NBC project, directed by Richard Colla (“Deadly Medicine”), will begin production next month to air in November.

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Rising Star: Can you imagine the likes of Fox’s beefy “Beverly Hills, 90210” or melodramatic “Melrose Place” on CBS, television’s oldest-skewing network? You might not have to. Darren Star, the hot, young creator and executive producer of those shows, will move from Fox, where he began his TV career, to CBS in a new deal struck with his production company. Star received a rare 13-episode commitment from CBS to create and produce a new one-hour ensemble drama about young people in New York, tentatively titled “Central Park West.” The series is slated for a fall 1995 premiere.

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Musical News Chairs: KCBS-TV Channel 2 has announced its anchor lineup for its new 4 p.m. newscast starting Sept. 12. Current anchor Ann Martin will team up with newcomer Beverly Burke from WMAR-TV in Baltimore at 4 p.m., to be followed at 4:30 p.m. by Tritia Toyota and Bob Jimenez. Martin and Michael Tuck will continue to anchor the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.

PUBLIC SERVICE

Rwandan Relief: A strong celebrity front will soon move in to plead with the public--in 5,000 movie theaters and on network television and radio and in print advertisements--to aid Rwanda. Jodie Foster, Richard Gere, Nicolas Cage, Dana Carvey, Vanessa Williams, Hakeem Olajuwon, Jeff Goldblum, Edie Brickell, Donald Sutherland and Richie Havens have all agreed to voluntarily participate in public-service efforts for the American Red Cross to raise money for the people of Rwanda. They are working with five major advertising agencies, which have banded together to form the multimedia Crisis Coalition.

DANCE

Ballet Bestowal: African American classical ballet pioneer Joseph Rickard, who died last Wednesday after a long bout with pneumonia, left a legacy to the Huntington Library in San Marino. Rickard, founder of the First Negro Classic Ballet in 1947, donated a personal collection of 270 items ranging from scrapbooks to music scores to set designs. Among the successful ballets Rickard choreographed was the first black production of “Cinderella,” with original music by Claudius Wilson.

POP/ROCK

Their Life: The Piano Man and the Uptown Girl have called it quits. Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley announced in April that they were separating, and now their divorce is final. The nine-year marriage of the musician, 45, and the model, 40, was dissolved Thursday by Supreme Court Justice Phyllis Gangel-Jacob, according to reports. The final agreement was filed earlier this week under the caption “Anonymous vs. Anonymous.” The divorce documents are under court seal and no information was available about the couple’s division of property or custody arrangements for their 8-year-old daughter, Alexa Ray.

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Changes in Latitude: The “Son of a Son of a Sailor” may need some flying tips. Jimmy Buffett swam to safety Thursday when the seaplane he was piloting crashed into a wave on takeoff from Nantucket, Mass. The “Margaritaville” singer was alone in the nine-seat, twin-engine plane when it flipped. Buffett, 47, of Key West, Fla., escaped and was picked up by a passing boat that carried him to shore. Authorities said Buffett had no visible injuries but complained of pain. Buffet and Herman Wouk are expected to begin work in November on a Broadway musical based on Wouk’s 1965 novel “Don’t Stop the Carnival.” It’s about a Broadway press agent who quits his job and buys an island hotel hoping to find paradise. He doesn’t.

QUICK TAKES

Action director John Woo is holding an open casting call today from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Hollywood Methodist Church to find an 8-year-old who can swim to play a South American Indian boy from the Amazon jungle in his upcoming film, “Tears of the Sun.” . . . Burt Reynolds is recovering at his ranch in Jupiter, Fla., from outpatient surgery this week to repair a small tear in an old hernia. . . . HarperCollins publishers announced Friday that it has acquired world rights to “Self-Portrait,” the autobiography of two-time Academy Award-winning actor Anthony Quinn, to be published in the fall of 1995.