POP/ROCKTour Postponed: The Red Hot Chili Peppers’...

POP/ROCK

Tour Postponed: The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “One Hot Minute” tour, scheduled to open Monday in Denver, has been postponed until early next year after drummer Chad Smith broke his left wrist playing baseball Wednesday night in Los Angeles. The band, which last toured in 1991, had been scheduled to perform Dec. 29 at the Forum. However, the Chili Peppers plan to make their scheduled appearance on Thursday’s David Letterman show, with Smith doing light drumming on the song “My Friends.”

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Jackson vs. McCartney: Michael Jackson says that he and Paul McCartney aren’t on the outs over Jackson’s handling of the Beatles catalogue. Jackson merged his publishing company, which owns the Beatles music, with Sony Music this week. “I’m a friend of [McCartney’s] and his family; I spoke to him three times last week,” Jackson said in an interview with USA Today printed Thursday. However, in a Los Angeles Times interview to be published Sunday, McCartney tells pop music critic Robert Hilburn that he’s “not happy” with Jackson’s handling of the Beatles music rights, which he called “tacky,” and that although he has spoken to him “a few times” recently, he “got nowhere.”

TV & VIDEO

Interview Deleted: CBS has confirmed that its lawyers ordered “60 Minutes” to delete from this Sunday’s broadcast an on-the-record interview with a former tobacco company executive who criticized the industry. According to the New York Times, which first reported the change Thursday, CBS was concerned that it might be held legally responsible because the interview violated a contract the executive had with the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. not to disclose internal information. Correspondent Mike Wallace, who reported the story, and executive producer Don Hewitt said they supported the decision. But Wallace noted that ABC’s recent settlement of a $15-billion lawsuit by Philip Morris has “chilled” CBS lawyers, thus changing the way they looked at the “60 Minutes” interview. Hewitt said the remaining story would “pull no punches” in talking “about what happened to us, what happened to ABC” in trying to cover the tobacco industry.

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‘Gump’ Tops Cable: The HBO debut of last year’s best picture Oscar winner, “Forrest Gump,” drew more than 5 million viewing homes last Saturday to become cable TV’s highest-rated program of 1995. In homes with HBO, “Forrest Gump” outperformed ABC, CBS and NBC combined. The film will be reshown on HBO next Sunday, Wednesday and Nov. 20, 23 and 25.

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‘Batman’ Videos Selling Fast: This year’s reigning box-office champ, “Batman Forever,” starring Val Kilmer as the Caped Crusader, is flying high in video release. The third installment in the “Batman” saga, which has grossed more than $180 million domestically, sold 3 million units in North America in its first week of release--a record for Warner Home Video. Released on Halloween with a retail price of $20, “Batman Forever” is expected to top the reported 10 million units sold by the original 1989 “Batman.” Earlier this year, Disney’s “The Lion King” sold 20 million copies in its first six days of release; “Forrest Gump” sold approximately 7 million copies in its first four days.

MUSIC

Tenor Difficulties: The puffmasters used to call Luciano Pavarotti “Pirate of the High C’s,” but the title now may be eluding him. As part of his 60th-birthday celebrations at the Met, the tenorissimo returned to the role of Tonio in “La Fille du Regiment,” which includes an infamous aria that rises nine times to the top C. Contrary to advance publicity, Pavarotti chose to transpose the aria down a half tone at the premiere, making him just a pirate of the high B’s (notes he reportedly reached with some difficulty). Wednesday night, however, at the second performance, he cracked on the first B and canceled the remaining eight. Then he went home, leaving the rest of the opera to an understudy. A Met official told the disappointed audience that Pavarotti was suffering from phlegm on his vocal cords.

ART

Uneven Sales Night: Sotheby’s New York sold $113.7-million worth of Impressionist and modern art on Wednesday night, topping all other auctions of similar material since 1990 but falling far short of the firm’s estimated $150-million total. While Vincent van Gogh’s 1890 landscape “Sous-Bois” was sold to an unidentified collector for $26.9 million--the sale’s top price and the fourth-highest sum ever paid at auction for a work by the Dutch artist--23 of the 88 items offered went begging.

QUICK TAKES

David Letterman said on Wednesday’s “Late Late Show With Tom Snyder” that there were several appealing reasons, such as the accessibility of guest stars, to move his New York-based “Late Show” to Los Angeles permanently. “I think we would consider it,” he said, adding, “I don’t know how soon or when.” . . . KPWR-FM (105.9) deejay Jim (The Poorman) Trenton has filed a $50-million lawsuit against Fox Broadcasting and New World Television over their plans to turn the KROQ-FM (106.7) radio program “Loveline” into a late-night show scheduled to premiere on Fox stations in the fall of 1996. Trenton, who created “Loveline” while working at KROQ in 1983, claims that he owns the name and format of the proposed TV show. Trenton also planned today to request an injunction against KROQ to stop airing the “Loveline” radio show. . . . “Frasier” co-star David Hyde Pierce will host and Vic Damone and the Young Musicians Orchestra will star in the Young Musicians Foundation’s 41st anniversary benefit performance tonight at 6:30 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.