TELEVISIONMore Family Woes: The suicide of actor...

TELEVISION

More Family Woes: The suicide of actor Carroll O’Connor’s son touched a raw nerve for “Coach” star Craig T. Nelson, who disclosed that one of his three adult children also attempted suicide this week. “I’ve been there,” Nelson said. “I’ve been the son and I’ve been the father. I mean, 11 years ago, I was a drug addict-alcoholic. Now, I’m a father that’s sober.” O’Connor’s only son, 32-year-old Hugh O’Connor, killed himself Tuesday after years of battling drug addiction. It was the same day that Nelson learned that one of his kids had tried to commit suicide days earlier. He wouldn’t say which one. “We were in the middle of rehearsals so I kept rehearsing,” he said. “It’s the only thing I knew how to do--put one foot ahead of the other and cry inside, you know?”

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BET Looks at AIDS: Cable’s Black Entertainment Television will examine the AIDS epidemic within the African American community during a live town hall meeting titled “Silence Equals Death: AIDS in the Black Community,” airing Tuesday at 6 p.m. The 90-minute forum, hosted from Washington by BET news anchor Ed Gordon, is the first of a series of town meetings being produced jointly by BET, Emerge magazine and AT&T.;

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Calling All Waiters: 20th Century Fox Television will hold an open casting call today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Fox TV Center’s Stage 4 in Hollywood. Producers are seeking young male and female actors who do not have agents and are working as waiters for a new comedy pilot about five waiters at a trendy Manhattan restaurant. Participants must have a restaurant pay stub to audition.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Chicago Post: Composer-conductor Pierre Boulez has been named principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he joins fellow conductors Daniel Barenboim, the orchestra’s music director, and Sir Georg Solti, music director laureate. Boulez, who turned 70 this week, will be honored in Japan in May with the first Pierre Boulez Festival, which will include three performances by the Chicago Symphony, one of which will be conducted by the honoree. Boulez first appeared with the Chicago Symphony in 1969 when he gave the American premiere of his “Livre pour cordes.” Since 1991, Boulez has maintained a regular monthlong residency in Chicago and has released four recordings with the orchestra in as many years.

ART

Worth the Wait: Long lines and a wait of up to an hour are greeting visitors at St. Petersburg’s “Hidden Treasures Revealed,” the controversial show of Impressionist and Postimpressionist art taken from Nazi Germany by occupying Russian soldiers at the end of World War II. The show opened to the public Thursday at St. Petersburg’s fabled State Hermitage Museum, and by late afternoon queues of up to 250 patient patrons had formed. Even larger crowds are expected this weekend.

MOVIES

It’s Not Tara, but . . . The burned-out Atlanta house where “Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell once lived will be restored to its original turn-of-the-century style and opened to the public as a museum by the start of the city’s 1996 Olympic Games. The house was severely damaged by an arsonist last September.

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April Fool’s Day Honor: Walt Disney’s enduring cartoon character Goofy will celebrate in style today when the states of Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia proclaim “Goofy Day.” The gubernatorial proclamations honor Goofy’s “distinguished 63-year-career on stage, screen and television,” as well as Friday’s upcoming release of “A Goofy Movie,” the canine cartoon figure’s first feature starring role.

QUICK TAKES

Bruce Springsteen is set to perform on Wednesday’s “Late Show With David Letterman.” Although his musical selections have not been announced, bets are he’ll have his reunited E Street Band on hand to perform one of the new songs they recorded for Springsteen’s “Greatest Hits” album. . . . Pop stars Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne will perform acoustic sets at Beverly Hills’ Maple Drive restaurant Sunday in a benefit for Americans for a Safe Future, a group dedicated to halting Gov. Pete Wilson’s plan to built a radioactive waste dump in California’s Ward Valley near the Colorado River. . . . Martin I. Kagan was named Friday as the new executive director of Glendale’s Alex Theatre, effective May 1. Kagan, who is acting vice president of the Music Center of L.A. County, has also worked with L.A. Chamber Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl and Center Theatre Group.

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Kudos: Actress Kim Fields will take home top honors for her directorial debut, “Silent Bomb,” in the Black American Cinema Society’s 13th annual Independent Filmmaker Competition, Sunday at Sunset Boulevard’s S.I.R. Theater. The HIV-related film will be screened at the theater today from noon to 5 p.m. . . . Model-actress Vendela will receive the Audrey Hepburn Hollywood for Children Foundation’s second annual Humanitarian Award tonight in Miami. . . . Actor Martin Sheen received the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation’s Friendship Award at the Biltmore Hotel on Friday for his support of the United Farm Workers.