TV & RADIO

Rush’s World: Looking for someplace to spend your next vacation? Forget Disney World. Take a trip to Limbaugh Land. The southeast Missouri town of Cape Girardeau is aiming to lure tourists by pitching its connection to hometown boy Rush Limbaugh. Beginning early next year, excursion buses (making mostly right turns, no doubt) will pass the hospital where the conservative talk-show host was born, the house where he lived, the barbershop where he shined shoes and the radio station where he got his start. Postcards and souvenir magnets will be available.

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‘Eye’ing Stability: CBS’ “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung” is apparently staying put, at least for now, in its tough Thursday 10 p.m. time slot against NBC’s powerhouse drama “ER.” Earlier this week, “Eye” executive producer Susan Zirinsky told a reporter that meetings have been held about either revamping or moving the show, and rumors have been circulating about “Eye’s” future all week. But on Thursday, CBS News president Eric Ober said there were no “current” plans for changes on the show or its time period. “The only thing we have planned for ‘Eye to Eye’ right now,” Ober said, “is to keep on doing really good, really interesting shows and spending less time on talking in public about it.” So far this fall, “Eye” is in a tie for 69th place among prime-time shows.

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‘Party’ Time: Fox is switching the time periods for two of its low-rated dramas, the critically praised “Party of Five” and the Aaron Spelling show “Models Inc.” Starting Jan. 2, “Models” will follow “Melrose Place” on Monday nights at 9, while “Party,” about five siblings struggling to keep their family together after the deaths of their parents, will air after another teen-oriented show, “Beverly Hills, 90210,” on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Both “Party” and “Models” have had trouble in the ratings; “Party” ranks 97th out of 101 prime-time shows while “Models” is in 84th place. In a vote of confidence, however, Fox announced Friday that it had ordered four more episodes of “Party,” bringing the season’s total to 20, and will rebroadcast its pilot episode on Dec. 28 at 9 p.m.

MOVIES & VIDEO

Video Is as Video Does: The year’s box-office champ, “Forrest Gump,” will be released on video April 28, Paramount Pictures announced Friday. The film’s current box-office total is$291.5 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing domestic movie of all time.

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Script Turns Real: Art imitated life for French superstar Gerard Depardieu this week during filming in Hong Kong of his latest movie, “Guardian Angels,” about a European gangster getting tangled up with the Chinese Triad criminal societies. As part of an extortion attempt, six real Triads turned up on the set, threatening to disrupt work on the film unless they were paid off. Police arrested the would-be gangsters, ages 16 to 20. Since the Chinese communist revolution of 1949, the British colony has been the world headquarters of the Triad gangs. Hong Kong police have identified 57 different Triad societies in the crowded territory.

POP/ROCK

Velvet Comes Above Ground: Lou Reed won’t be on hand but the remaining three musicians of the influential 1960s rock group Velvet Underground were scheduled to reunite Friday night for their first U.S. concert in 25 years. However, the band is only playing two dates (including tonight) in a small venue--a 110-seat theater at Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum. John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker planned to improvise 90-minute sets while images from Warhol’s early silent films were projected upon them. In the band’s early days, Reed and other members worked with Warhol on several of his avant-garde projects. It was Warhol’s idea for them to record and he was listed as co-producer on their first album, for which he also provided the cover design.

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Tribute to Bakersfield: Buck Owens, who helped popularize country music’s Bakersfield Sound, is creating a museum honoring the genre--in the San Joaquin Valley town, of course. Construction on the museum and a restaurant, bar, stage and dance area should begin within a few weeks, said Owens’ spokesman. Bakersfield has been called “Nashville West” due to the honky-tonk music made famous by Owens, Merle Haggard and others. Owens’ hits include the 1988 song “The Streets of Bakersfield,” recorded with Dwight Yoakam.

THE ARTS

Redgrave Returns: The first extended Los Angeles run for Lynn Redgrave’s Tony-nominated “Shakespeare for My Father” will take place at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills from Dec. 12-Jan. 8. Redgrave recently did three sold-out performances of the work at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse as part of the UK/LA Festival.

QUICK TAKES

The first MTV European Music Awards will be held Thursday on a temporary stage erected at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, with pop star Tom Jones serving as host. The program airs on MTV in the United States that same day at 2 p.m. . . . As expected, Fox Broadcasting has acquired the first season’s episodes of HBO’s sexy, critically acclaimed series “Dream On,” and will begin showing the program mid-season, in a time slot not yet determined.