THE ARTS’Forbidden’ Zone: Gerard Alessandrini, creator of...

THE ARTS

‘Forbidden’ Zone: Gerard Alessandrini, creator of the satirical revue “Forbidden Broadway,” is now planning a movie-town mate, “Forbidden Hollywood,” featuring spoofs of movies and their stars (not to be confused with the movie of the same title). Alessandrini will move “Broadway,” which is closing at the Tiffany Theatre on Sunday, to San Diego’s Theatre in Old Town for a Sept. 28 opening; then he hopes to give “Forbidden Hollywood” a tryout at the same San Diego theater before moving it to the Tiffany in February--just in time for Oscar season.

* Paris Opera Ordered to Pay: A judge ordered the Paris Opera on Friday to pay its fired conductor, Myung-Whun Chung, $9,000 a day as long as it fails to obey a court order to reinstate him. Chung, 41, was refused entry to a rehearsal studio at the opera house Tuesday, a day after the judge ruled he should get his job back as musical director pending a final ruling on an appeal against his dismissal last month. “The decision today is not surprising. We are obliged to pay him,” said Christian de Pange, the secretary general of the Paris Opera. “We’re not obliged to hold his rehearsals.” He said the opera would await the outcome of an appeal next week. The $9,000 for each day of rehearsals was a cut from the $16,000 Chung usually received, De Pange said. Dismissed two weeks ago in a dispute over pay and the length of his contract, which runs through the year 2000, Chung is the latest victim in a string of artistic and labor disputes that has rocked France’s leading opera company. The judge earlier this week also banned the opera from starting the season on Sept. 19 with another conductor.

TELEVISION

Seasonal Changes: Beginning Monday, a reformatted version of television talk show “Rolonda,” hosted by Rolonda Watts, hits the air at 2 p.m. on KCAL Channel 9. Boasting a new set, graphics and music, the producers are dubbing the transformed show a “total talk magazine,” incorporating previously taped features within the “traditional” talk-show format. Also on Monday, “Inside Edition” moves up an hour to a 6 p.m. time slot on KCAL, and “Entertainment Tonight” introduces a made-over version of its theme music, as arranged by host-musician John Tesh. Meanwhile, “Geraldo” kicks off its eighth season Sept. 12 on KCBS Channel 2 with a new format in which the show goes live three times a week, devoting every Thursday’s broadcast to celebrity gossip, and promising that “Geraldo” will be the “program of record” for the upcoming O.J. Simpson, Heidi Fleiss and Menendez brothers trials.

* He Gives a Damn: Clark Gable’s son, John Clark Gable, will make a special guest appearance on NBC’s “Margaret,” a two-hour historical drama based on the true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning “Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell. The movie, which stars former “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress Shannen Doherty in the title role, airs Oct. 31. Gable, 33, whose famous father played Rhett Butler in Mitchell’s classic saga, plays a young soldier who has designs on Margaret Mitchell.

MUSIC

Home Boyz Live in Philly: R&B;/doo-wop crooners Boyz II Men offered something better to its Philadelphia fans than a canceled midnight music store appearance Wednesday night. After their in-store performance prompted community complaints about the late hour, the Boyz, who are all Philly natives, gave an impromptu street concert. “We just want to apologize to everybody that we couldn’t do the in-store,” said one of the members, Nate Morris. “Those are the people we really want to get to: the people back in the neighborhoods that really support us.” Boyz II Men is set to appear on the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday at 8 p.m., performing live in a lineup that includes Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Salt-N-Pepa and Green Day.

* Brit Wins Jazz Prize: British saxophonist Tony Coe became the first winner of the International Jazzpar Prize to be born outside of the United States, the awarding committee announced Thursday. Coe, 59, was awarded the $36,000 prize for his “extreme instrumental skill” by the Danish Jazz Center, which created the annual award in 1989. The committee also cited Coe’s “exceptional stylistic versatility and the profound peculiarity of playing,” as well as his “invaluable contributions” to European jazz. He will receive a check and a statuette at a ceremony in Copenhagen in March.

* Wildlife Concert: Tippi Hedren will host what is planned as the first “Artists for Shambala” event, a two-day concert to benefit the Shambala Preserve, a Canyon Country wildlife sanctuary founded by Hedren in 1972. Hedren’s daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, will emcee the Oct. 1-2 concert, which features the Crash Test Dummies, Jeff Healey Band, the Tubes, Shadowfax and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones on the Shambala grounds. The 80-acre preserve, on the edge of the Mojave Desert, serves as a wildlife habitat for animals born in captivity that depend on humans for their survival. Among its residents are African lions and elephants, Siberian and Bengal tigers, cougars and leopards.