POP/ROCKTrial Date Set: A Los Angeles judge...

POP/ROCK

Trial Date Set: A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday set a trial date of Jan. 13 for rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg and two co-defendants accused of killing a man in the Palms area last year. A grand jury has indicted the rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, along with McKinley Lee and Sean Abrams for murder in the 1993 shooting death of Philip Woldemariam, 20. Lee, Broadus’ bodyguard, has acknowledged shooting Woldemariam, but claims the action was in self-defense. Broadus is accused of driving the Jeep from which the shots were fired.

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UK/LA Concert Canceled: The British Consulate has officially canceled the planned “Prince’s Trust Benefit Concert” which was to have taken place at Universal Amphitheatre on Nov. 3 as part of the citywide UK/LA Festival. The concert would have been the first U.S. pop concert under the Prince’s Trust, which has previously organized several charity concerts in London. No lineup was ever announced for the performance, but the event was included in the magazine-sized UK/LA Festival brochure. A consulate spokeswoman said funding for the project “fell through” when organizers could not finalize plans to televise the event. The cancellation did not entail any conflicts with the schedule of Prince Charles, who is still expected to attend several UK/LA events.

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Suicides Follow Cobain: Three young men whose bodies were found Sunday in a storage facility near Vancouver, Canada, apparently killed themselves in despair over the April suicide of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, police said. Two bodies were found in a car inside the facility and the third was alongside. The men, in their late teens or early 20s, appeared to have been dead at least a week from carbon monoxide poisoning. Notes in a diary found at the scene suggested they were depressed over Cobain’s death. “They were upset about it. When Cobain died, they died. It’s very sad,” a police spokesman said.

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Courtney Carries On: Cobain’s widow, rock musician Courtney Love, gives her first print interview since Cobain’s April suicide as the cover story for the Rolling Stone issue due on newsstands Nov. 29. Meanwhile, “Live Through This,” by Love’s band Hole, has been named the best album of the year by the editors of Spin magazine, who also selected Smashing Pumpkins as artist of the year. Hole performs at the Hollywood Palladium on Nov. 9.

RADIO

New Station: A new National Public Radio affiliate will debut Thursday serving Ventura County and broadcasting contemporary jazz as well as standard NPR news and cultural programming. KCLU-FM (88.3) will sign on at 5 a.m. Thursday and stay on the air daily till midnight. The station will be broadcast from the Thousand Oaks campus of California Lutheran University.

MOVIES

Spielberg Unites Rival Studios: Steven Spielberg will team with Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. to produce “Twister,” a script by author Michael Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie. The script, about scientists who track tornadoes, was sold during the weekend for $2.5 million, sources said. It is not yet known whether Spielberg will also direct the movie. The deal was the last studio project OK’d by Spielberg before announcing last week that he will form a new partnership with fellow entertainment moguls Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Under terms of the “Twister” deal, rival studios Warner Bros. and Universal will split the movie’s costs and profits and flip a coin to decide distribution rights.

THE ARTS

NAACP Theatre Nods: The Doolittle Theatre’s staging of “Five Guys Named Moe” scored again on Tuesday, winning more of the annual NAACP Theatre Award nominations (13) than any other show. Last week, the production won the highest number of Ovations Award nominations. The double honor may pose logistic problems for the “Moe” nominees; both awards ceremonies are scheduled for the same night--Nov. 14. The NAACP honors take place at Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel, with special award winners including actors Glynn Turman and Dick Anthony Williams.

QUICK TAKES

Fox plans to air “The O.J. Simpson Story” at 8 p.m. Nov. 22--if jury selection in Simpson’s murder trial has been completed. The movie was originally set for Sept. 13 but was delayed after pleas from the defense. . . . Rush Limbaugh has extended his Multimedia TV contract through the 1997-98 season. The program is the current leader of syndicated late night shows. . . . Fox has canceled its 8:30 p.m. Sunday-night baseball sitcom “Hardball.” The show will be replaced with reruns of “The Simpsons.”