MOVIESLagerfeld Insult Deleted: “Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter),”...

MOVIES

Lagerfeld Insult Deleted: “Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter),” Robert Altman’s film satire of the fashion industry, will open as planned in Germany Thursday but minus a sequence in which German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld is called a “plagiarist.” Last week, Lagerfeld gained a court injunction against the film’s German release after filing a complaint saying the film was insulting. The movie’s German distributor, Senator Film, said Tuesday it had agreed to cut the reference to ensure the opening as scheduled.

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No Rule Bending: West Virginia’s Mineral County School Board won’t allow its students to view Steven Spielberg’s 1994 Academy Award winner, “Schindler’s List,” despite Gov. Gaston Caperton’s endorsement of the Holocaust-themed film. Teachers and a local principal had asked to show the movie to schoolchildren, but the board said the film’s “R” rating violated a district policy. “I think the Holocaust is something that definitely needs to be studied in our school systems. But I think there are other forms of material that could be used that don’t carry the ‘R’ rating,” school board president Allen Shapiro said. Gov. Caperton had endorsed a program through which Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment provides a copy of the film to school groups, along with curriculum guides explaining the subject and dealing with the film’s rating.

POP/ROCK

Berry Out of Hospital: R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry, who underwent brain surgery for a ruptured aneurysm on March 3, was released Tuesday from the Switzerland hospital where he underwent the procedure. Doctors ordered Berry, 36, to take three more weeks for rest and recuperation. R.E.M., which was in the midst of a European tour before Berry’s illness, has canceled the remainder of those overseas dates. Warner Bros. Records said Tuesday that U.S. tour plans, including several scheduled Southern California shows May 7-14, will be updated within the next month.

TELEVISION

Going On-Line: Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Comedian Bob Hope will thank folks for the memories via America Online during a 12:30 p.m. chat on Thursday. Hope takes on the technology as part of a promotion for “Bob Hope’s Young Comedians: A New Generation of Laughs,” which airs Saturday on NBC. Hope, 91, will be joined in the on-line chat by fellow comedian Phyllis Diller, 77, who co-hosts Hope’s special. America Online users can access the chat via the keyword “NBC.”

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‘Coach’ Joins Lineup: “Coach” will join the potent ABC Wednesday lineup of “Roseanne,” “Ellen” and “Grace Under Fire” to form a new two-hour comedy block starting next Wednesday. “Coach,” starring Craig T. Nelson and Shelley Fabares, will air at 9:30 p.m., following the other three shows with original and repeat episodes scheduled through May 3. “Bringing Up Jack,” a new half-hour series starring comedian Jack Gallagher that had been scheduled to assume the Wednesday 9:30 time period next week, will be rescheduled at a later date.

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Animated ‘Jonny Quest’: “Jonny Quest,” a new Hanna-Barbera animated series based on the hit 1960s prime-time program “The Adventures of Jonny Quest,” will premiere in the fall of 1996 on all three Turner Broadcasting System cable networks. The cartoon, featuring Japanese-style animation from Japan’s Pacific Animation Corp., will air Mondays through Fridays on TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. It will also air late-nights on the Cartoon Network and on Saturday afternoons on TNT.

STAGE

Performance Festival: The Mark Taper Forum will present four performance artists in a six-week festival, “Virtual Theatre,” at the Taper, Too in April and May. Scheduled are Marga Gomez’s “A Line Around the Block” (April 6-15), Danny Hoch’s “Some People” (April 20-May 14), Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s “Borderama” (April 28-30) and Yehuda Hyman’s “The Mad Dancers”(May 8-17).

QUICK TAKES

Rapper Flavor Flav, a member of the group Public Enemy, has been convicted in New York of possessing a weapon after firing a gun at a neighbor in 1993. The neighbor was not hurt in the incident. The rapper, whose real name is William Drayton, originally was charged with attempted murder, but the charges were reduced. He faces up to one year in jail when he is sentenced May 18. . . . Pop star Whitney Houston will host Nickelodeon’s 8th annual Kids Choice Awards, a program in which the cable station’s youthful viewers can vote through an 800 number on such topics as their favorite TV and movie actors, singers, video games and cartoons. The live show airs on the cable network on May 20 at 5 p.m. . . . Hollywood columnist Army Archerd will narrate tonight’s benefit performance of the Shubert Theatre’s “Beauty and the Beast” for the vision impaired. The performance is part of a “TheaterVision” program which aims to improve access for the blind to movies and other visual media.