TV & VIDEO - Feb. 12, 1996

Jackson, Lee Care About Video: Pop star Michael Jackson and director Spike Lee began work during the weekend on “They Don’t Care About Us,” the video that has caused an uproar in Brazil. Despite officials who reacted angrily to Jackson’s plans to shoot part of the video in the now-notorious Dona Marta slum, thousands of Dona Marta dwellers were out to praise Jackson and Lee on Sunday for including scenes of Rio’s poverty in his video. “Thanks to Michael Jackson, our slum is now on the map,” said Jose Luis de Oliveira, president of the Dona Marta Residents Assn. During the shoot on Sunday, Lee directed cameramen to get the best angles of the maze-like jumble of shacks in the slum. They focused on raw sewage streams running down the hillside and toddlers bathing in dirty water. On Saturday, Lee captured shots of more than 200 members of the Olodum drumming corps in the old downtown area of Salvador, Brazil’s former imperial capital. The drummers are recruited from hordes of street kids as part of a social assistance program.

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Wild Accusations?: A nature filmmaker has denied accusations that he staged supposedly wild confrontations between animals--some of them inside cages. Marty Stouffer, whose “Wild America” series has aired on PBS for the past 11 years, said that “staging” could be a matter of interpretation. “Sometimes we will take a tame animal out for a walk, and if a chase develops, we will film it,” Stouffer said. The allegations were made by former Stouffer employees and others. Officials at PBS said they were unaware of the allegations but planned to talk to Stouffer about them. “Mr. Stouffer’s integrity has never been questioned before,” said Kathy Quattrone, vice president for programming.

Baby, You’re the Greatest: KTLA-TV Channel 5 will pay tribute to the late actress Audrey Meadows, who died recently of cancer, with a marathon of “The Honeymooners” episodes Feb. 19. The station will present 10 episodes of the classic TV show featuring Meadows as Alice Kramden. The shows will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with an hourlong news break at noon.