AWARDSHumanitas Finalists: The writers of “Forrest Gump,”...

AWARDS

Humanitas Finalists: The writers of “Forrest Gump,” “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Nobody’s Fool” are finalists for the 21st annual Humanitas Prize, honoring achievement in film and television writing that illuminates the human situation. Screenwriters Eric Roth, Frank Darabont and Robert Benton were chosen from more than 500 entries. Among the finalists in six television categories were the writers of episodes of “Chicago Hope,” “Picket Fences,” “Party of Five,” “Grace Under Fire” and “Roseanne.” The winners will share $120,000 in prize money to be presented at a luncheon July 6 at the Universal Sheraton Hotel.

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Far East Honors: British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber won $176,000 Thursday as a recipient of a 1995 Praemium Imperiale prize from the Japan Art Assn. for achievement in music. The other winners, who also each get $176,000: Matta, a Chilean who lives in France, for painting; Christo, the artist famous for wrapping buildings; Nakamura Utaemon VI, a Kabuki actor; and Italy’s Renzo Piano, the architect who designed the Pompidou Center arts complex in Paris.

POP/ROCK

Pearl Jams, Finally: With its June 26-27 Del Mar Fair shows rescheduled for the San Diego Sports Arena, Pearl Jam kicks off its 12-city tour tonight in Casper, Wyo. The Seattle quintet then proceeds with shows in Salt Lake City, Denver, Sacramento and San Francisco before hitting Southern California. Bad Religion will open all shows, with Mudhoney added to the lineup in San Diego.

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Sinead Incensed: Irish pop star Sinead O’Connor clashed with two Israeli photographers near a church in Jerusalem’s walled Old City on Thursday, breaking their cameras and tearing one man’s shirt. A Reuters camera crew filmed a visibly angry O’Connor leaving the Holy Sepulchre church, traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion. She grabbed at a local newspaper photographer and said: “How dare you follow me around the church?” The singer, who caused a stir a few years ago by ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live,” then tussled with another photographer before bodyguards hustled her, barefoot and holding a plastic bag over her head, to a waiting van.

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Singer Arrested: While hundreds of police chiefs were waiting for Ty Herndon to perform, he was allegedly exposing himself to an undercover officer. The 33-year-old country singer was arrested Tuesday night in Fort Worth, Tex., and charged with indecent exposure and possession of methamphetamines, police said. He was freed on $500 bond. The undercover officer said Herndon asked him to accompany him to a wooded area of a park, where Herndon sat on a log, exposed himself and began masturbating. Herndon had been scheduled to sing later that evening at a convention of Texas police chiefs. His appearance was canceled, as was the opener Thursday night in Myrtle Beach, S.C., of his first major headlining tour. Herndon, whose “What Mattered Most” was a No. 1 country hit this year, is still scheduled to perform Aug. 2-3 in Paso Robles.

STAGE

‘Dogs’ Loose in Westwood: The first production at the newly named Geffen Playhouse (a.k.a. the Westwood Playhouse) will be John Patrick Shanley’s “Four Dogs and a Bone,” a dark comedy about movie makers, to be staged by movie-maker Lawrence Kasdan in his professional theatrical directing debut, Oct. 19-Nov. 26. Martin Short is expected to be one of the four actors, though his contract has not yet been signed.

TELEVISION

No More Pickin’ and Grinnin’: “Hee Haw,” the cornball TV show that has been on the air almost continuously since 1969, has been canceled by the Nashville Network. The cable channel, which made the announcement Wednesday, had been showing “Hee Haw” reruns Saturday nights since 1993. Except for a seven-month break in 1971 and a three-month hiatus in 1993, the program has been on the air somewhere for 26 years. Roy Clark was host of “Hee Haw” during its entire 24-year run of about 600 original episodes. Buck Owens joined him as host for 17 years.

MUSIC

Master Chorale Honored: The Los Angeles Master Chorale and music director Paul Salamunovich have received the top prize for “adventuresome programming of contemporary music” in the professional chorus category from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)/Chorus America. It is the first such award the chorale has received in its 31-year history.

QUICK TAKES

Singer Amy Grant will undergo eye surgery today in Nashville, forcing her to postpone 15 concerts, including shows Monday in San Diego and Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl. The Hollywood Bowl concert has been rescheduled for Sept. 3, the San Diego show for Sept. 5. . . . Elizabeth Taylor told a group of New York magazine beauty reporters that she will enter a hospital Sunday for hip-replacement surgery.