ARTShot of Life: The art market perked...

ART

Shot of Life: The art market perked up considerably Wednesday night when one of Andy Warhol’s best-known Marilyn Monroe portraits, “Shot Red Marilyn,” fetched $3.63 million after spirited bidding at a contemporary art auction at Christie’s in New York. The 1964 silk-screen, which was expected to bring $2.5 million to $3 million, had set a record for the artist during the art boom in 1989 when it sold for $4.07 million. “The outstanding performance of this painting and the strong results of the sale overall point to the continuing trend of steady, measured growth in the art market,” said Christopher Burge, Christie’s chairman. The overall $14.6-million sale was one of Christie’s most successful since the art market’s crash in 1990, with only six of the 50 lots offered failing to find buyers. Records were set for works by Donald Judd, Francesco Clemente, Sigmar Polke and Jeff Koons.

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Looking for Voters: The last of five art billboards urging voter participation was erected at the corner of Mission Road and Daly Street this week as part of Gannett Outdoor’s public service campaign, “Voices of L.A.” The billboard, created by Michael Prado, a third grader from Griffin Avenue School, joins additional billboards by artists Robbie Conal (at Pico and Hauser boulevards), Liz Young (Wilshire Boulevard and Lucas Avenue), Skip Arnold (Colorado Boulevard and College View Avenue), Pauline Sanchez (Riverside Drive and Cahuenga Boulevard) and the team of Bob Zoell and Gary Leonard (southbound San Diego Freeway at Marine Avenue). Gannett funded “Voices of L.A.” to “give artists a chance to take a voice from the people to the people,” and plans to erect a new crop of issue-oriented, artist-designed billboards at least once a year, said Rick Robinson, a Gannett Outdoor manager.

TELEVISION

Batter Up!: ABC has pulled its freshman Monday night comedy, “Blue Skies,” and will replace it Jan. 9 with a new half-hour program starring former “L.A. Law” star Corbin Bernsen. The new series, tentatively titled “A Whole New Ballgame,” will also star “Blue Skies’ ” Julia Campbell. Bernsen will play Brett Sooner, a major league baseball star, sidelined by the strike, who becomes a sportscaster at a small Milwaukee television station. Campbell’s character, Nicki Cooper, runs the station and butts heads with Sooner. Filling the slot in the interim will be repeats of “Coach.”

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More ‘Power Rangers’ Controversy: A Canadian children’s television station, YTV, took Fox’s futuristic action show “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” off the air this week, and another Canadian network, Global Television, is considering a similar move after receiving censures from an industry review board. “Among other things it contains too much violence; it doesn’t show children the effects of violence and that’s a big problem from our point of view,” said a Canadian Broadcast Standards spokesman. The action followed complaints from two mothers who said their children displayed aggressive behavior after watching the program, a wildly popular series about teen-age super-hero vigilantes. Earlier this month, the U.S.-made show was temporarily pulled from Norwegian airwaves and cited as a possible factor following the death of a 5-year-old girl who was beaten and left to freeze to death by her playmates. The program was reinstated when no direct links were found.

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Reverse Image: The Beverly Hills/Hollywood branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People is calling for the return of the organization’s Image Awards, which have been overseen for the last several years by the group’s national board of directors. “Four years ago we told (national board members) a grave mistake was being made when the decision to take the Image Awards was announced,” said branch president Sandra J. Evers-Manley. “The show was our major fund-raiser and our branch has suffered because of their decision to oversee the program.” Manley added that recent financial difficulties of the NAACP will make it difficult for the national board to produce the show this year. National officials were not available for comment.

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‘Disclosure’ in Doubt: A planned Fox newsmagazine, “Full Disclosure,” may never come to the airwaves despite current plans to use the show as a mid-season replacement. Fox has already completed a pilot, featuring British journalist Andrew Neil, but sources say the network may drop “Full Disclosure” and instead develop a news program for late-night TV.

POP/ROCK

Bob Dylan Faces Palimony Case: Bob Dylan’s companion of nearly 20 years is suing him for more than $5 million, saying she co-wrote some of his songs and helped manage his career before they broke up last year. In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Wednesday, Ruth Tyrangiel claims she “devoted all aspects of her life to (Dylan’s) needs, interest and well-being,” and that the singer-songwriter promised to split his property with her in the event of death or separation.