POP/ROCKCalling All Fans: The first-ever Jimi Hendrix...

POP/ROCK

Calling All Fans: The first-ever Jimi Hendrix Electric Guitar Festival takes place in Seattle over Labor Day weekend as a highlight of the annual Bumbershoot festival. Included will be an all-day Hendrix tribute concert Sept. 4 at Kenwood Stadium featuring Abraxas, George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars (with Parliament and Funkadelic) and a guitar finale with nearly two dozen participants, including Noel Redding, Buddy Miles, Narada Michael Walden and the Spirit of Hendrix, Stanley Jordan, Neil Schon, Steve Vai, Vernon Reid, Mike McCready and Clarence Clemons. Other features include an electric guitar competition seeking “the electric guitarist who most embodies the qualities admired and imitated in Hendrix,” and “Red House,” an interactive exhibition at the Seattle Center Pavilion promising a “visual, aural and cultural trip through the ‘60s.” Ticket and schedule information are available at 206-682-4-FUN.

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Going Public: Poet-rocker Patti Smith is scheduled to make her first Southern California appearances since the late ‘70s with spoken-word performances Sept. 6 at the Belly Up in Solano Beach and Sept. 7 at the Promenade Theatre in Long Beach. Smith is also expected to appear Sept. 6 on KCRW-FM’s (89.9) “Morning Becomes Eclectic” show. The Promenade show kicks off the four-week performance series “When Words Collide,” which also includes a Jim Carroll show Sept. 9 at the Foothill Club in Signal Hill and Long Beach Convention Center appearances by Laurie Anderson on Sept. 25 and Ken Nordine on Sept. 30.

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Protecting Their Name: R.E.M. has sued the Hershey Foods Corp. for using the rock group’s name and image in a promotion for Kit Kat candy bars without the band’s authorization or approval. The suit, which claims trademark infringement, unfair competition and related offenses, was filed after the band heard the Kit Kat ad--which included an R.E.M. concert promotion--on an Atlanta radio station last week. The group routinely rejects requests to use its name and music in commercials, including promotional tie-ins. “R.E.M.’s music, name and good will are simply not for sale for crass commercial purposes,” the band said in a statement.

MOVIES

Russian Film Festival: A Russian Film and Culture Festival will take place Sept. 11-16 at Hollywood’s Laemmle Theatres Sunset 5. Hosted by the Beverly Hills-based Russian American Cultural Exchange, the festival--billed as the first of its kind on the West Coast--will feature five feature films and five animated movies, each of which will screen twice on a particular day. A related program of Academy Award-nominated films from Russia and the former Soviet Union will be presented at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Sept. 15, through the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences monthly “Academy Standards Screening.” Additional Russian cultural fare, including arts and craft exhibits and live performances, will be offered Sept. 17 at the Universal CityWalk.

TELEVISION

Still Friendly: “The Fred Friendly Seminars,” which have aired on PBS for the last 13 years, will retain that title even though NBC’s Tim Russert has been named host. The title has been kept to “honor Fred, who remains a symbol of all the best of television,” according to producer Stuart Sucherman. A stroke has kept Friendly off the air for the last several years. Russert, whose stint as moderator on “Meet the Press” has seen the NBC show rise to challenge longtime Sunday champ “This Week With David Brinkley,” was Friendly’s choice, Sucherman said. Russert will next host the Sept. 6 seminar, “Your Money and Your Life,” which deals with health care.

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Programming Notes: CBS, which used to have NFL football on Sunday afternoons, will counter the Fox and NBC pigskin schedules this fall with “The Godfather” trilogy. The original movie airs in two parts, from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sept. 17 and 24. Part II airs Oct. 1 and 8, and the last installment begins Oct. 8 and concludes in prime time on Oct. 10. . . . Cable’s Family Channel is resurrecting “Christy,” the out-of-production CBS series starring Kellie Martin, Tyne Daly and Tess Harper. The cable channel will begin airing reruns of the series at 7 p.m. on Saturdays starting Oct. 7, after the show’s final broadcast on CBS.

QUICK TAKES

Acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for “Red,” is recovering from a heart attack, a source close to the director said Tuesday. Kieslowski’s sister Maria Jankowska confirmed Tuesday that the 53-year-old director was rushed to a Polish hospital Friday. She would not give details of his ailment, but said that Kieslowski’s life was not in danger. . . . Elizabeth Perkins, Parker Posey and Brendan Fraser will join the previously reported Martin Short in the cast of “Four Dogs and a Bone” at the Geffen Playhouse (formerly the Westwood), opening Oct. 19.