ARTThe Art of Sir Andrew: Composer Andrew...

ART

The Art of Sir Andrew: Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on Wednesday confirmed that he was the mystery buyer who purchased Pablo Picasso’s “Angel Fernandez de Soto,” sold last week at Sotheby’s for more than $29.2 million, the highest price paid for any painting at auction since 1990. The painting is one of the last from the artist’s Blue Period that will ever be available for sale. The auction of the painting depicting the Barcelona anarchist led to frenzied bidding before Lloyd Webber made the purchase for his arts foundation. The painting has already been taken to London and an assessment is currently being made with regard to its cleaning and conservation. The trustees of the foundation will then decide which museum would be the most appropriate for its first exhibition. “It has long been an ambition for my foundation to own a major Blue Period picture,” Lloyd Webber said. “I find it quite remarkable and it has a mesmeric appeal.”

POP/ROCK

HISstory, HERstory: King of Pop Michael Jackson and his queen, Lisa Marie Presley Jackson, will give their first interview as a married couple June 14 at 10 p.m. on “PrimeTime Live” on ABC. Diane Sawyer will interview the couple separately and together live from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur. The show will mark Lisa’s first broadcast interview. The two will discuss their marriage, and Jackson will talk about his music and the controversy surrounding his life, including allegations of child molestation. The hourlong broadcast will also feature the premiere of two videos--one of the couple’s wedding and another from Jackson’s new greatest-hits album, “HIStory Past, Present and Future, Book 1,” which will be released June 20.

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. . . Through Good Times and Bad: Rapper Tupac Shakur was married last month in prison to his longtime girlfriend, Keisha Morris. The two were married April 29 in the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York, where Shakur is serving a 4 1/2-year sentence on a sex abuse conviction. Shakur was engaged to Morris before he went to prison, spokeswoman Beverly Paige said. “The honeymoon is put off until he gets out,” she said. A judge recently approved $1.4-million bail for Shakur to be freed while his sentence is challenged, but prosecutors appealed that judgment, leaving the rapper behind bars.

TELEVISION

AIDS Awareness: A slew of TV talk shows and soap operas have agreed to make June 21 a “Day of Compassion” by devoting their programming to AIDS awareness. The list of participating talkers includes Oprah Winfrey, Ricki Lake, Leeza Gibbons, Montel Williams, Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford, Jenny Jones, Geraldo Rivera, Gordon Elliot, Maury Povich and Jerry Springer. “Day of Compassion” is an annual project of Hollywood Supports, an entertainment-industry group that counters workplace discrimination on the basis of HIV status and sexual orientation.

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News on ABC News: ABC News will broadcast more than 20 hourlong prime-time specials over the next year under the banner of “ABC News Presents.” The specials will help utilize some of the 80 staffers displaced by the cancellation of the newsmagazine “Day One.” The specials will include editions of “Turning Point,” “Peter Jennings Reporting” and shows featuring “20/20” correspondent John Stossel.

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‘Lost’ on Tape: Time-Life Video & Television’s 10-hour documentary series “Lost Civilizations” will air weekly on NBC starting June 25 at 7 p.m., and then will go on sale as a home video. Sam Waterston will host the series.

LEGAL FILE

Cyrus Suit Settled: A suit accusing Billy Ray Cyrus of copyright infringement in his song “She’s Not Crying Any More” has been settled. Cyrus’ lawyer Jay Bowen said that the terms of the settlement are confidential. Danny Mote of Winston, Ga., sued Cyrus in 1993, alleging that the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer used substantial parts of a song Mote wrote in the 1970s titled “Cryin’ Eyes.” Cyrus responded that he wrote his song while in his pickup truck, singing into a microcassette recorder.

STAGE

Padua on the Move: The peripatetic Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, L.A.’s long-running showcase for cutting-edge playwriting, is on the move again. This year’s productions, July 20-Aug. 14, will be at USC. The festival’s last two homes were campuses in the San Fernando Valley.

MOVIES

Gay Film Festival: “Outfest ‘95: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival” will be held July 6-16 at the Directors Guild of America. More than 200 features, documentaries, short films and videos from 12 countries will be screened at the festival, which will include panel discussions, sneak previews and a major retrospective on “100 Years of Cinema: The Queer Perspective,” including “The Boys in the Band,” “The Hunger” and “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.”