POP/ROCKShakur Indicted: Controversial rapper Tupac Shakur pleaded...

POP/ROCK

Shakur Indicted: Controversial rapper Tupac Shakur pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court after being indicted by the county jury for an alleged weapons violation. The rapper, who co-starred with Janet Jackson in the film “Poetic Justice,” was arrested April 30 after police allegedly found a 9mm semiautomatic handgun in a computer case under his car seat. The grand jury charged Shakur with being a convicted person having a concealed firearm in a vehicle. Shakur is due back in court for a pretrial hearing in a week. The case is just one in a host of legal troubles facing Shakur, who earlier this year served 15 days in county jail for assault and battery. Last week, he pleaded guilty in Michigan to misdemeanor assault charges. Shakur also faces sexual assault charges in New York and an aggravated assault charge in Atlanta. A prerecorded interview with the rapper will air on cable’s Black Entertainment Television at 6 tonight.

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Concert Chilled Out: Elton John ended his scheduled 2 1/2-hour concert about 30 minutes early Monday night at the Greek Theatre because he was too chilled on stage, his publicist said. “Elton wasn’t prepared for the drop in temperature during the evening and he felt the chill was affecting his playing,” said Sarah McMullen. “There will be additional heaters on stage for the rest of the shows and he’ll be dressed accordingly.” The Greek engagement, which continues through Thursday, will raise about $750,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

TELEVISION

Expanded Comedy Fest: Cable’s HBO and Comedy Central are joining forces to back the 1995 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, an expanded version of the annual Aspen, Colo., Comedy Festival. In its expanded format, the March 22-26 festival will spotlight virtually every comedy discipline, including one-person shows, plays, short films, animation and stand-up. “This festival will focus on both the art and the business of comedy,” said HBO Senior Vice President Chris Albrecht. “We hope that it will do for comedy what the Sundance Festival has done for film.” Portions of the festival will air on both HBO and Comedy Central.

MOVIES

Restored ‘Lady’: Donald and Marla Trump, Laurence Tisch and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. were among those who attended the premiere of a newly restored version of “My Fair Lady” Monday night at New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre. The 1964 musical, starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, recently underwent an Eliza Doolittle-like transformation at the hands of film restorers Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz. “It’s absolutely magic,” said Marni Nixon, who sang most of Hepburn’s songs in the film. “This preservation (means that) children will be able to see this.” An additional film clip that had Hepburn’s original vocal track for “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” was also shown. The restored “My Fair Lady” opens Friday at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza.

THE ARTS

Chung’s Baton Rewarded: The Paris Opera is kicking him out next month, but the audience and orchestra love conductor Kyung-Whun Chung. The audience charged to its feet and roared “Bravo!” after the embattled Chung conducted Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” Monday night at the 2,700-seat Opera Bastille. The musicians gave him a standing ovation and threw flowers. “That was the first time the musicians threw me flowers,” said Chung, who lost his job in a dispute over salary and artistic control.

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LACMA Discussions: Members of the director’s search committee at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art were in Minnesota recently for discussions with Evan Maurer, 50, director since 1988 of the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. LACMA officials said last month that by late September they hoped to be close to naming a new director for the Wilshire Boulevard museum. Maurer, whose academic specialties include early modern, African and American Indian art, is one of few names to have surfaced during LACMA’s yearlong search to fill the vacant post.

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Going to Washington: Two Los Angeles area artists will be among 11 individuals receiving National Heritage Fellowship grants of $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts today in Washington. Sosei Shizuye Matsumoto of Los Angeles, a master of the Japanese tea ceremony, will perform the ritual at congressional ceremonies on Capitol Hill. Also honored will be Glendale’s Lily Vorperian for keeping alive the Armenian tradition of marash style embroidery.

QUICK TAKES

Fitness guru Richard Simmons will soon host his own five-nights-a-week syndicated radio program. “The Richard Simmons Show” will be offered to stations around the country starting Jan. 3 over the Westwood One Entertainment network. . . . Hole, the rock group fronted by Courtney Love, the widow of the late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, will play two Southland dates as part of a 41-show U.S. and Canada tour starting tonight in New York. Hole will appear at San Diego club Soma on Nov. 8, followed by the Hollywood Palladium on Nov. 9.