Advertisement

MOVIESBut Is He Buying Them Popcorn?: Walt...

Share
Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

MOVIES

But Is He Buying Them Popcorn?: Walt Disney’s “Pocahontas” will have its world premiere tonight before a crowd of 100,000 on Central Park’s Great Lawn--but New York Newsday reports that the public, who were told the only way to win a coveted spot was by entering a May lottery held by Disney, will have to make room for 1,200 of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s closest friends. According to the report, a total of 20,000 tickets were held out of the drawing. New York Gov. George Pataki and other state officials received some, while others were given to radio stations for promotions or set aside for “talent,” meaning the people connected to the movie and the pre-movie live show. Giuliani is doling out his 1,200 reserved spaces to every city commissioner, and is distributing the rest among friends, relatives, top staffers, their families and other elected officials. Asked how the 420,000 people who tried unsuccessfully to obtain tickets through the sweepstakes should feel, mayoral spokesman Marty Algaze said: “I understand there’s a concern. The movie will be opening very shortly in theaters all across the country. In a couple of weeks, everyone will be able to see the movie in air-conditioned splendor.” Lottery-acquired tickets were being scalped for as much as $100 Thursday, a Disney spokeswoman said.

TELEVISION

‘Hoop Dreams’--The Sequel: Whatever happened to Arthur Agee and William Gates, the young men whose high school basketball careers were the focus of the acclaimed documentary “Hoop Dreams”? The public will get to find out via a 30-minute documentary that received funding Friday from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting. “Hoop Dreams Epilogue,” to be produced by Kartemquin Films of Chicago and KTCA-TV in Minneapolis, will reveal what happened to Agee and Gates after high school and how their lives were affected by the film.

STAGE

‘Hollywood’ Forbidden: Whoopi Goldberg and Bette Midler, represented by the same attorney, have ordered the producers of “Forbidden Hollywood” to cease and desist from using the actresses’ likenesses in 1,000 posters advertising the show. While caricatures of Midler and Goldberg will be pulled from newspaper ads as of this weekend and likenesses of the two performers on the set will be covered, show producers said Friday the sketches that spoof each actress will remain in the show, a movie-biz sendup currently playing at the Coronet Theatre.

Advertisement

PEOPLE

Ted Speaks: Television tycoon Ted Turner said Friday that he sympathizes with political leaders who say America’s pop culture has become too violent, but he expressed support for several violent films produced by his company. He gave the seemingly mixed message while showing shareholders of his Turner Broadcasting System Inc. clips from some violent films, including “Mortal Kombat,” due for release at the company’s Hollywood subsidiaries--New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment. “There are scenes that give me some trouble, too, in some of these,” Turner said. “I would like to see the level of the entire entertainment industry raised some as far as this is concerned. I would think and hope that we would certainly go along with it if the industry cooperates to reduce it.”

*

You Were Expecting ‘Tom’?: Roseanne tells TV Guide in its June 17 issue that Buck is the name she and husband Ben Thomas have chosen for the baby she is expecting. Roseanne also says she wants to call a truce with embittered ex-husband Tom Arnold, who she says refuses to agree on a divorce settlement. Says the seven-months pregnant Roseanne: “Why won’t he let me have my baby in peace?”

*

Not Expecting: And another celebrity couple says they won’t be choosing baby names for a while. A representative of Lisa Marie Presley on Friday denied a tabloid news report that she and her husband, pop superstar Michael Jackson, are expecting a baby. The report of Presley’s pregnancy in Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper is “totally false,” according to the member of Presley’s entourage, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The couple, who married a year ago in a blaze of publicity, have been trying for a baby for some months, the paper said, quoting close friends. It said they were expected to announce the results of her pregnancy test in an interview Wednesday on ABC’s “PrimeTime Live.”

QUICK TAKES

Sylvester Stallone and model Angie Everhart have called off their engagement, his publicist said Friday. No reason was given for the decision to end the engagement announced two months ago. . . . Christopher Reeve, paralyzed after breaking his neck in a horseback-riding accident, has regained some movement on both his right and left sides, although there’s no way to tell whether he will make any further recovery, his doctor said Friday. . . . Richard Pryor will be on hand to sign his new book, “Pryor Convictions and Other Life Sentences,” today at the Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., from 5-7 p.m.

Advertisement