MOVIESFellini Remembered: Anthony Quinn, who played the...

MOVIES

Fellini Remembered: Anthony Quinn, who played the circus strongman Zampano in Federico Fellini’s first Oscar winner, “La Strada,” offered some memories as Rome marked the 75th anniversary of the late director’s birth with a week of tributes. “I loved Fellini’s sense of fantasy,” the silver-haired actor said. “He told me I should never tell the truth: ‘Everyone knows the truth. Tell them something they don’t know, tell them your mother’s a princess and your father’s a giant. It’s far more interesting.’ ” Quinn spoke fondly of “La Strada”--the complex story of the relationship between a slow-witted girl, played by Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina, who died last year, Zampano and a clown. “When I left Hollywood, I was someone who played Indians, cowboys, bandits and gangsters. But when I returned after ‘La Strada’ people saw me as a changed man. It liberated me. It was always of deep regret to me that I never made another film with Fellini. I once asked him why he wouldn’t use me again and he told me that for him I would always be Zampano.” Fellini would have been 75 on Friday, when a major retrospective of his work opens in Rome before moving on internationally. Fellini died Oct. 31, 1993.

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Down to the Wire: The Writers Guild of America soon might offer two contracts for ratification by its membership. One, with the television networks, was reached in December. Another, with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, is on the verge of completion, pending delicate final negotiations. The guild postponed a Feb. 1 membership election on the network pact in the hope that both contracts can be submitted for a simultaneous vote.

STAGE

Stars Named: Christine Lahti and Richard Dreyfuss will star in the two-person show “Three Hotels” at the Center Theater Group/Mark Taper Forum of the Music Center, it was announced Wednesday. Previews begin March 12 and the show opens March 23. The Jon Robin Baitz play will be directed by Joe Mantello and will run through April 30.

MUSIC

Meet Him in St. Louis: Unlike a certain football team, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has been around town for 115 years. Maybe that’s why it didn’t attract as much notice Monday when it was announced that Dutch conductor Hans Vonk will be the orchestra’s new maestro. Vonk, the chief conductor of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, succeeds Leonard Slatkin, who is leaving to become music director of Washington’s National Symphony.

TELEVISION/RADIO

News You Can Choose: Two Minnesota TV stations launched a nightly mix-and-match news format that permits viewers to alternate between harder and softer news. The 10 p.m. weekday newscasts on CBS-owned WCCO Minneapolis and WB Network-affiliated KLGT-TV, a St. Paul UHF station, begin with a simulcast of the day’s top stories. The programs are coordinated so that viewers can stay with WCCO for world news, sports and detailed weather or switch to KLGT for an emphasis on local news and features. The 35-minute nightly “News of Your Choice” was launched Monday and topped the time period’s ratings with a combined share of 33% of the viewing audience. WCCO’s share was 28%, while KLGT’s was 5%.

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Special Report on Hearing: National Public Radio News will broadcast a one-hour summary of congressional hearings on the Corp. for Public Broadcasting’s federal funding today. NPR’s Alex Chadwick hosts with Neal Conan, who covers the issue for NPR. The program will be carried on KCRW-FM 89.9 from 6 to 7 p.m.

POP/ROCK

Tupac Shakur Stays in Custody: Rapper Tupac Shakur, awaiting sentencing on a sex abuse conviction, remained in Riker’s Island prison hospital ward after a New York judge refused to lower his $3-million bail. Shakur, 23, and his road manager, Charles Fuller, 24, were convicted Dec. 1 of abusing a 20-year-old woman. No sentencing date has been set. Fuller is free on $350,000 bail.

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Garth Still Rules: Garth Brooks’ “Hits” sold more than 240,000 copies last week, which will extend the country king’s reign at the top of the nation’s pop chart to four weeks when Billboard magazine hits newsstands Saturday. The rest of the Top 5: Green Day’s “Dookie,” 154,000 units; Boyz II Men’s “II,” 143,000; the Eagles’ “Hell Freezes Over,” 140,000; and Pearl Jam’s “Vitalogy,” 130,000.

QUICK TAKES

Roseanne will tape her ABC show from bed today. Her doctor has ordered her there during the early stages of her pregnancy, which prompted a quick script change. The comedian, 42, underwent in-vitro fertilization in November. There was no word on how long she’ll remain bedridden. . . . Singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett turns Cupid with a bit part in a special hour episode of “Mad About You” on NBC Feb. 2. . . . Wolfgang Puck will be the official chef of the annual Governors Ball following the Academy Awards on March 27. Puck dropped out of the post-Oscar scene following the 1993 death of superagent Irving (Swifty) Lazar, who threw an annual bash at the chef’s Spago.