TELEVISIONNBC/Gates Connection: NBC announced a deal on...
TELEVISION
NBC/Gates Connection: NBC announced a deal on Tuesday with Microsoft Corp. to develop CD-ROMs and other multimedia products, at the same time that the network is planning an hourlong documentary on Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. NBC News executives insisted that there was no connection between the two projects. “There is a distinct wall between editorial and business here, and in no way did NBC’s talks affect the Gates special,” said NBC News spokeswoman Beth Comstock on Tuesday. Tom Brokaw, who anchors the profile, did not know of NBC’s interest in Microsoft when he began reporting the documentary a year ago, Comstock said. Brokaw was told in late 1994 that Microsoft was one of numerous companies seeking NBC’s multimedia business. He was informed of the active discussions only recently “as the talks heated up.” The documentary, which discusses the current antitrust suit against Microsoft and other topics, will air May 26.
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Fall of the ‘Legend’: Five crew members of Richard Dean Anderson’s TV series “Legend” suffered minor injuries when a balcony on a movie set collapsed at Old Tucson Studio’s Mescal location. The men fell 15 to 20 feet when the balcony they were standing on collapsed last Friday, said Jackie Hammock, a spokeswoman with the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department. They were taken to Benson Hospital and released after treatment. As of Tuesday, authorities still hadn’t determined why the balcony collapsed. “Legend,” which appears on the United Paramount Network, was to be filmed at Old Tucson but production was moved to Mescal after about half of the Old Tucson theme park was destroyed in an April 24 fire.
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MTV Attitudes: About 58% of young people consider themselves to be part of a distinct generation in this country, citing such characteristics as drugs, crime, gangs and violence as primary factors that set their generation apart, according to a national poll of 804 young adults, 16 to 29, conducted by MTV and Peter D. Hart Research Associates. From a provided list, respondents of the phone survey chose “high tech” (56%), “open minded” (50%), “angry” (45%), “survivors” (43%) and “stressed out” (40%) as characteristics that best describe their generation. But don’t call them slackers. The characteristics they say least describe their generation are “lucky” (31%), “spiritual” (28%) and “slackers” (23%). Almost half of those surveyed believe the news media are “unfair and inaccurate” in its reporting of them.
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Mysteries Solved: In the past two weeks, tips from “Unsolved Mysteries” viewers have led to the arrests of five fugitives. The latest involved two alleged perpetrators of a $7-million commodities trading scam. Ray William Olsen and Linda Anne Morgan were apprehended last week in Yachats, Ore., by members of the FBI. Olsen and Morgan have been indicted on more than 20 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. This brings to 122 the number of fugitives who have been caught in seven seasons with the help of “Unsolved Mysteries.”
ARTS
Complex Changes: The 18th Street Arts Complex, home to Highways Performance Space and a wide range of visual and performing arts groups, has announced that High Performance magazine will no longer be associated with the Santa Monica center. Magazine founder Linda Burnham and editor Steve Durland, who were both founders of the complex, have formed a nonprofit organization to publish High Performance in North Carolina, where they now live. Additionally, complex executive director Julia Salazar is stepping down from her post, but will remain on the 18th Street board of directors.
DANCE
Bad Moves: A Russian court Tuesday ruled that an unprecedented strike by 14 dancers at the Bolshoi Ballet was illegal, opening the way for the theater to punish them, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. The court dismissed the dancers’ defense that the March 11 strike had been spontaneous, saying it was clear that they had planned the stoppage in advance. The action by the dancers, who were protesting changes in the Bolshoi’s management, forced the theater to cancel one of its productions for the first time ever. At the end of March, principal ballerina Nadezhda Pavlova quit the Bolshoi in the latest blow to the renowned Moscow theater, which is struggling to overcome a long-running internal leadership dispute. Longstanding differences over the way the Bolshoi was being run boiled over in early March when former artistic director and top choreographer Yuri Grigorovich resigned after 30 years in the job.
POP/ROCK
They Wrote the Songs: ASCAP and BMI, the two major music licensing organizations, have announced the most performed songs of the past year. In the 43rd annual BMI Pop Awards Tuesday night, Babyface was named songwriter of the year, and his “Breathe Again,” a hit for Toni Braxton, was declared the most-performed song. The ASCAP awards, announced Monday, went to Gary Baker and Frank Myers’ “I Swear,” a hit for both John Michael Montgomery and All-4-One, and to Robert John (Mutt) Lange, named songwriter of the year for such hits as Bryan Adams, Sting & Rod Stewart’s “All for Love.”
QUICK TAKES
Valerie Bertinelli will star in “Turn of the Screw,” a CBS event movie based on Henry James’ 100-year-old classic novel. Filming begins in June in Britain or Ireland . . . The first music video from the soundtrack album of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie” will premiere Sunday on Fox. The video features the song “Trouble,” performed by Shampoo, and includes footage from the film
