STAR TREKRiding for Money: Actors Arnold Schwarzenegger,...

STAR TREK

Riding for Money: Actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Arnold and Lorenzo Lamas will lead an estimated 1,000 motorcycle riders from Santa Ana’s Planet Hollywood restaurant to San Diego’s Horton Plaza today to mark groundbreaking ceremonies for a San Diego Planet Hollywood. The 100-mile ride, scheduled to start at 10 a.m., benefits the Children’s Hospital of Orange County and the San Diego Center for Children.

POP/ROCK

Elvis Watch: Elvis Presley is apparently not only alive and well, but also preparing to make a “triumphant” return to show business with a Feb. 25 concert at the Hollywood Bowl! At least that’s the word coming down from San Diego-based concert promoter Bill Silva; publicist Lee Solters, whose clients include pop star Michael Jackson; and musician Mojo Nixon, who recorded the MTV hit “Elvis Is Everywhere.” The latest Elvis Is Alive publicity stunt started with a report in the tabloid Weekly World News, which told of a “mind-boggling new White House tape,” supposedly containing a conversation between the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and President Clinton. In the purported tape, Elvis tells Clinton that he will “whither away and die” if he doesn’t perform again soon, then asks Clinton to make a televised announcement of the Feb. 25 Hollywood Bowl show. The President’s supposed reply is that he’d have to meet the King personally before going public. But promoter Silva, after receiving a “third-party” request to arrange the gig, sent out a written invitation to performer Mojo, asking him to open the Elvis concert. Silva’s letter notes, however, that “this offer is, of course, contingent upon final confirmation from either Mr. Presley or President Clinton.”

THE ARTS

Art Attack: L.A.’s favorite guerrilla artist, Robbie Conal, has struck again. His target this time: House Speaker Newt Gingrich, better known to his mother and TV newswoman Connie Chung as “Newtie.” Conal has his own name, “Newtwit,” for the outspoken Republican, who has talked of eliminating funding for such entities as the Corp. for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts. Conal, who plastered his latest creation in various spots Wednesday night, has used previous posters to attack such subjects as the Supreme Court, Sen. Jesse Helms, Gov. Pete Wilson, former Vice President Dan Quayle, former President Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy and former L.A. Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

Brisk Business: According to the director of performing arts at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium, ticket sales have increased threefold since the recent announcement of the hall’s planned closure in May. Tonight’s concert by jazz pianist Gene Harris is sold out, as are upcoming shows with the Kingston Trio (Sunday, also tonight at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa), cellist Yo-Yo Ma (Feb. 22) and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Feb. 26). Other dates are close to selling out, said David Hulme. To free up more tickets, the theater has added extra seats “on the stage, and on lifts where possible,” Hulme said.

Venue Switch: “Forbidden Hollywood,” an upcoming stage revue of movie parodies, has switched its L.A. venue. It will now open at the 382-seat Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills instead of the 272-seat Coronet on La Cienega Boulevard. An April opening is planned. The show is playing at San Diego’s Theatre in Old Town through March 4.

MOVIES

Critical Trashing: Add another source of woe for Kevin Costner, who’s in Hawaii filming the much-troubled, way-over-budget “Waterworld.” Costner’s “Rapa Nui,” a love story about Polynesian natives filmed almost entirely on location on Chile’s Easter Island, opened in Santiago on Thursday only to be met Friday by vicious reviews in the Chilean press. “The setting is real, but the plot and the people are cardboard,” said the country’s most influential newspaper, El Mercurio. “It doesn’t even manage to be pretentious, since the story line is so naive it’s infantile.” Other publications were just as harsh, such as the afternoon paper La Segunda, which called the film “a catalogue of commonplaces on savagery, ignorance and lack of spirituality.” The movie bombed in the United States, both at the box office and with critics.

COMEDY

Butler’s Benefit: “Grace Under Fire” star Brett Butler will headline a Thursday night comedy show benefiting the L.A. District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Safety Plan Hotline. The 8 p.m. event, at Sunset Boulevard’s Laugh Factory, also features Pam Stone (“Coach”), John Mendoza (“The Second Half”), Ralph Louis Harris (“On Our Own”), John Witherspoon (“The Wayans Bros.”) and Charles Fleischer, the voice of Disney’s Roger Rabbit. Stephanie Miller of KFI-AM (640) will serve as master of ceremonies. Tickets are $25.

QUICK TAKES

Journalist Bill Moyers will make his first appearance as a commentator for the “NBC Nightly News” on Tuesday. . . . KTTV-TV Channel 11’s “Straight From the Streets,” a weekly feature of its “Good Day L.A.” morning show, was honored by the Los Angeles City Council on Friday for its “positive stories from the community.” . . . “Wings” star Tim Daly and “Love & War” star Annie Potts have been set as hosts for the People’s Choice Awards, to be broadcast March 5 on CBS.