ARTDisappointing Auction Start: Los Angeles collector Eli...

ART

Disappointing Auction Start: Los Angeles collector Eli Broad bought the top lot Tuesday at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in New York, paying $2.5 million for Roy Lichtenstein’s “I . . . I’m Sorry,” a comic-strip-style painting of a teary-eyed blonde. The previous record for a Lichtenstein, $6 million, was set in 1990 for “Kiss II.” However, the sale did set a record for artist Ellsworth Kelly, whose 1965 work “Green Red Yellow Blue” went for $805,500, besting his previous top price of $715,000. Overall, though, the auction was a disappointing start for the fall season, with the night’s total take only $12 million, below the pre-sale estimate of $14 million to $19 million. And only 43 of the 71 works offered found buyers. “We were of course disappointed with the number of lots which failed to sell,” said Anthony Grant, Sotheby’s director of contemporary art. The auctions were continuing Wednesday, with one item, a 1978 Andy Warhol silk-screen of football star-turned-murder-defendant O.J. Simpson, attracting more interest from reporters than bidders. After only two minutes of anticlimactic bidding, the portrait sold to a Colombian collector for $34,500, within its pre-sale estimate of $30,000 to $40,000.

TELEVISION

Cable Nods: As it has in the past, HBO dominated the nominations announced Wednesday for the 16th annual CableACE Awards for cable-TV programming between Sept. 1, 1993 and Aug. 31, 1994. The pay channel collected 99 of the 391 nominations, including 12 for “Dream On,” 10 for “And the Band Played On,” 9 for “The Larry Sanders Show” and 8 for “Tales From the Crypt.” The only other program with more than 6 nods was TBS’ “National Geographic Explorer,” which got 10. Winners in 86 categories will be announced in two batches: a non-televised ceremony Jan. 13 and another Jan. 15 to be carried on TNT.

Break Time: Bandleader Branford Marsalis will take a leave of absence from NBC’s “Tonight Show” early next year to spend time touring and being with his 8-year-old son, Reese. Marsalis’ spokeswoman said Wednesday that the saxophonist’s departure--which so far has no set date or length--does not reflect any unhappiness with the job or host Jay Leno. Meanwhile, a “Tonight Show” spokeswoman said Marsalis, who has conducted the NBC Orchestra since Leno assumed Johnny Carson’s mantle, won’t be replaced since the show is “planning on him coming back.” Guitarist Kevin Eubanks will fill in temporarily.

Live! From L.A.: Looks like a big month for comedy fans with some of TV’s top stars set to do live shows. Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Paul Reiser and Larry Miller will perform on a quadruple bill Nov. 13 at the Wiltern Theatre. Tickets, available through Ticketmaster or the Wiltern box office, are $42.50 and $27.50 and benefit the Wolfberg Children’s Educational Fund. Then on Nov. 15, Roseanne will be at the Comedy Store in an abortion rights benefit for the Los Angeles-based Feminist Majority Foundation. Tickets are $125, available through the foundation.

MOVIES

Remembering Julia: A private memorial will be held at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre at 11 a.m. next Wednesday for actor Raul Julia, who died in New York on Oct. 24. Scheduled speakers include Ruben Blades, Laura Dern, Paul Mazursky, Barry Primus and Edward James Olmos. A separate memorial, with speakers including Arthur Kopit, Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep, will be held Sunday at New York’s Joseph Papp Public Theatre. On Wednesday, 10 Hollywood figures, including Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Harvey Keitel, Penny Marshall, Danny DeVito and Streep, took out full-page ads in the industry trade papers Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter, remembering Julia as “the actor we all loved, a wonderful friend, and a great man.”

PERFORMING ARTS

Gielgud’s Theater: The British stage world, honoring one of the greatest classical actors of the 20th Century, on Wednesday renamed the Globe theater in London’s West End after Sir John Gielgud. But the 90-year-old Oscar winner will not be treading the boards at the theater that was almost his second home for 30 years. “I am too nervous to play on stage any more,” he confessed as fellow thespians gathered to pay homage to the grand old man of British theater, who popularized Shakespeare and then went on to win worldwide fame in a varied film career. Gielgud, who last appeared on the London stage in 1987, will be seen on CBS later this month playing Scarlett O’Hara’s grandfather in “Scarlett,” the TV sequel to “Gone With the Wind.”

QUICK TAKES

Actress Jasmine Guy moves into Fox’s “Melrose Place” for at least two episodes starting Jan. 2. Guy will play Caitlin Mills, an efficiency expert hired to work at D&D; advertising who heads for a “direct collision” with Amanda (series star Heather Locklear). . . . “Madonna: Innocence Lost,” Fox’s unauthorized biography movie chronicling the Material Girl’s tumultuous rise to fame, has been scheduled to air Nov. 29, from 8 to 10 p.m. . . . Actress Kelly Le Brock filed in Los Angeles this week seeking divorce from action film star Steven Seagal. The couple separated Oct. 1 after seven years of marriage. Le Brock is seeking custody of the couple’s three children.