POP/ROCKEagles Cancel: The Eagles on Monday postponed...

POP/ROCK

Eagles Cancel: The Eagles on Monday postponed the remainder of the group’s much touted “Hell Freezes Over” reunion tour, including Saturday’s show at the Rose Bowl. The postponement was caused by group member Glenn Frey’s continuing gastrointestinal disorder, for which he will undergo surgery as soon as possible in Los Angeles. Canceled are all October U.S. dates, as are November and December dates in Australia and Japan. The concerts will be rescheduled for early 1995; organizers were working out a new Rose Bowl date on Monday.

Mellencamp’s Testimony: “The moral of my story is that 80 cigarettes a day and a cholesterol level of 300 is like a loaded gun.” So says rocker John Mellencamp, 42, who last month canceled the remainder of his concert tour, citing a clogged artery in his heart. In an interview in the Sunday Herald-Times of Bloomington, Ind., Mellencamp also confirmed that he suffered a mild heart attack in August. He said he is taking medication, has begun a diet and exercise program, and is down to three or four cigarettes a day.

TELEVISION

And the Winner Is . . . The battle of the Thursday night medical dramas is over: NBC’s “ER” registered a knockout against CBS’ “Chicago Hope” after only two rounds. CBS confirmed Monday that, beginning this week, “Chicago Hope” will switch time slots with “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung,” meaning the hospital series will be seen Thursdays at 9 p.m.--opposite NBC’s powerhouse “Seinfeld”--followed by the newsmagazine at 10 p.m. “ER” beat “Chicago Hope” in each of their two matchups, increasing its ratings lead last week to nearly double the opposition.

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Halloween Cartoon: Popular cartoonist Gary Larson gets his first TV special when CBS broadcasts “Gary Larson’s ‘Tales From the Far Side,’ ” an animated half-hour Halloween special, on Oct. 26 at 8:30 p.m. The special, including parodies of classic horror stories as well as favorite “Far Side” characters, consists of 10 cartoon vignettes that become intertwined as the stories unfold. Larson on Monday announced that he will retire from the daily cartoon strip Jan. 1.

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KCBS Diversity Award: The Los Angeles Urban League, which earlier this year accused KCBS Channel 2 of racism in its hiring and use of minorities, has presented the Social Responsibility Award to station Vice President and General Manager William Applegate. The award, given last Thursday at the league’s 73rd annual membership meeting, recognized KCBS’ efforts to increase the on-air visibility of minorities and diversity in the workplace. The organization cited the hiring of African American anchor Beverly Burke as one of the changes the station has instituted.

THE ARTS

Funding U.S.-Mexico Exchanges: Six local artists and arts organizations are among 59 grantees to receive $1.1 million in grants from the Rockefeller Foundation U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture. The grants, intended to foster cooperation and exchange between U.S. and Mexican artists, include $25,000 for Santa Monica’s 18th Street Arts Complex, which will present “Chicano/Chilango,” described as the United States’ “first binational dialogue and performance art exchange” with Mexico City. The series, scheduled for February, will be curated by performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena and producer Josephine Ramirez, and will include performances at Plaza de la Raza. Another grantee is the Santa Monica Museum of Art, which will receive $17,750 for a catalogue to accompany the planned 1996 exhibition “Dialogue/Dialogo/Comhra,” curated by Trisha Ziff. The exhibition will compare notions of cultural identity among contemporary Irish, Mexican and Chicano artists. Other local grant recipients are documentary filmmakers Renee Tajima ($25,000) and Sylvia Stevens ($23,000); artist Gustavo Leclerc ($14,660) and the multimedia performance group Collage Ensemble ($4,700).

QUICK TAKES

Former “Miami Vice” star Don Johnson will return to series television in the 1995-96 season. The actor has received a 22-episode commitment from CBS, but the network has no writer for the show yet and hasn’t even determined whether it will be a drama or comedy, CBS said. . . . Keith Moore, a London accountant who used to work for rock star Sting, appeared in a British court Monday, accused of stealing about $4.7 million from the rock star between 1988 and 1992. . . . Rock group Danzig will make an in-store appearance at the Sunset Boulevard Tower Records from 5 to 7 p.m. today, followed by a free concert at 9 p.m. at the Whisky. . . . Nearly 5 million kids across the country pledged more than 31 million hours of volunteer service over the weekend during “The Big Help-a-Thon,” a 12-hour telethon on cable’s Nickelodeon. . . . The eight-member British percussion group “Stomp,” which continues its stand at UCLA’s Wadsworth Theater through Oct. 23, will be on the set of ABC’s “General Hospital” today for guest appearances scheduled to air Oct. 19 and 20.