VIDEOSPocahontas Heads Homeward: Disney’s “Pocahontas” will hit...

VIDEOS

Pocahontas Heads Homeward: Disney’s “Pocahontas” will hit the home video market on March 6 in a limited-time release with a suggested retail price of $26.99. Expect to be inundated with marketing material related to the Buena Vista Home Video release--Disney’s tie-in partners include Mattel, Nestle, Chex cereal and an as-yet-unnamed major fast-food chain.

PEOPLE WATCH

Bypass Surgery Scheduled: Retired CBS newsman Charles Kuralt was released from New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center on Tuesday after being admitted on Sunday with chest pains. A CBS spokeswoman said that Kuralt, 61, did not suffer a heart attack. But the former “Sunday Morning” anchor, known for his “On the Road” series, is scheduled to return to the hospital to undergo bypass surgery in the “near future.” No other details about the upcoming operation were available.

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Birthday Bash Canceled: Entertainer George Burns, who continues to be plagued by frail health and poor movement in his right hand since his July, 1994, bathtub fall, has canceled his 100th birthday shows at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace. Burns, who hits the Big 1-0-0 on Jan. 20, told Variety columnist Army Archerd that he dropped the Jan. 17-21 Vegas performances because he doesn’t feel strong enough to do the kind of show his audiences expect. But Burns, who spoke to Archerd from a wheelchair, said he will keep working and that his next project will be an Oct. 16 taping of a commercial--in which he’ll be accompanied by a bevy of dancing girls, natch--for the Australian Football League’s 1996 season.

OPERA

Verdi Discovery: An opera score by the late Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi has been discovered beneath a heap of papers in his granddaughter’s house in Milan, the Italian weekly Oggi said Tuesday. Oggi said a priest and friend of great-granddaughter Gaia Maschi Orlandi had come across the score, titled “Capriccio” (Caprice), while going through a pile of old papers in Orlandi’s home. Verdi, who died in 1901, composed several famous operas including “Aida,” “Il Trovatore” and “La Traviata.”

TV/RADIO

Play It Again, Chris: Chris Douridas, host of “Morning Becomes Eclectic” on radio station KCRW-FM (89.9), will continue to play the music of a Southland musician who concocted an elaborate hoax that embarrassed the radio personality while generating interest in the artist. Joey Altruda, composer and arranger of what Douridas described as a “kitschy Cuban jazz” record called “Cocktails for Joey,” delivered his music to Douridas last week in the form of a vinyl acetate, presenting it as a never-before-released 33-year-old album from a Cuban bandleader who was in failing health. Then, in a live phone interview that aired Monday, Douridas spoke unknowingly to actors who had been retained by Altruda to perpetuate the story of the dying bandleader. On Tuesday, Altruda apologized on the air to Douridas and his audience. “One side of me thought, ‘That was a brilliant publicity stunt,’ ” Douridas said, “but the other side of me kept coming back to [feeling offended]. . . . I felt used.”

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Letterman Ticket Info: Nearly 2,000 tickets will be doled out on a first-come, first-served basis for the Nov. 6-10 Los Angeles tapings of “The Late Show With David Letterman” at CBS Television City. Only two tickets per person will be issued. Interested viewers should send postcards with name and address to: Tickets, “The Late Show” in Los Angeles, 1697 Broadway, New York, NY, 10019.

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Maher’s Network Move?: ABC is looking into a new option for the late-night race--Comedy Central’s Emmy-nominated show “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher.” The network is said to be interested in buying the topical, politically savvy talk show hosted by comedian Maher and scheduling it at midnight, after the 11:30 p.m. “Nightline.” Reached in New York Tuesday, Maher did not deny that talks with ABC are ongoing. Maher recently extended his contract with Comedy Central through 1996, which would mean a 1997 start-up for “P.I.” on ABC.

POP/ROCK

Hall of Fame Nominees: David Bowie, the Jackson 5, Pink Floyd, Parliament-Funkadelic and the Velvet Underground are among this year’s 15 nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ballots were mailed Tuesday to about 800 music industry voters, who will determine the final five to seven inductees. Winners, expected to be announced late next month, will be inducted Jan. 17 during ceremonies in New York. The other nominees: the Bee Gees, Solomon Burke, the Flamingos, Jefferson Airplane, King Curtis, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Moonglows, Lloyd Price, the Rascals and the Shirelles.

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Courtney Love Sentenced: Hole singer Courtney Love pleaded guilty Monday to hitting singer Kathleen Hannah of the group Bikini Kill on the head during a July 4 Lollapalooza concert near George, Wash. But Love avoided jail by agreeing to take courses in controlling her temper and paying a $150-fine and $285 in court costs.