PEOPLEBurns’ Last Tune: Entertainer George Burns’ final...

PEOPLE

Burns’ Last Tune: Entertainer George Burns’ final song has been released in a star-studded recording of “The Life,” a musical still making its way to the stage. Burns, who won an Academy Award at age 80, died in March, just weeks after turning 100. His last recording was “Easy Money,” done in two takes at a Los Angeles studio several months before he died. “It’s a tribute to his incredible spirit and professionalism that a short time before his 100th he made his way into the studio for ‘Easy Money,’ ” said Cy Coleman, who, with Ira Gasman, wrote 13 songs for “The Life.” The production is set to debut on Broadway in about 18 months, Coleman said. The soundtrack also features songs by Liza Minnelli, Jennifer Holiday, Lou Rawls, Billy Preston and Lesley Gore.

TELEVISION

Pilots Fly: Television pilots from several prominent African American producers, including Yvette Lee Bowser (“Living Single”), Reginald Hudlin (HBO’s “Cosmic Slop”), Rusty Cundieff (“Tales From the Hood”) and Stan Lathan (HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam” and “Moesha”) will be screened June 1 at the Black Filmmaker Foundation’s Third Annual Festival of Network Television Pilots. The festival, which begins at 1 p.m. at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills, will feature 11 half-hour comedies and one drama. Admission is free to members of the BFF. Annual membership to the BFF film society, which is open to the public, can be obtained at the door for $50.

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Brandy’s Prom: When pop sensation and “Moesha” star Brandy accompanies NBA wannabe Kobe Bryant to his prom tonight, she may not get the star treatment. Senior class sponsor Susan O’Bannon says prom planners at suburban Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia have been forced to hire extra security for the event, and the hoopla surrounding Brandy’s appearance has been “very disruptive.” A rumor that the 17-year-old Grammy winner might sing hasn’t helped ease the tension. The singer is already nervous as it is. She has said Kobe, a senior at Lower Merion, is her first real date. Kobe, 18, recently decided to enter the NBA draft after breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s record as the leading basketball scorer in Southeastern Pennsylvania history.

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As If!: You haven’t seen the show yet, but get ready to play with the doll. The cast of Paramount’s new TV series, “Clueless,” based on the hit film, will be forever immortalized as Barbie dolls. Mattel and Viacom will produce a line of fashion dolls, accessories and fashion-based CD-ROM titles on the upcoming series. Dolls of Rachel Blanchard, who plays Cher, Stacey Dash and Elisa Conavan are all in the works. The series will air Fridays on ABC.

THE ARTS

Summer Festival: The California State University Summer Arts Program’s Performing and Visual Arts Festival will run July 1-28 at Cal State Long Beach. It will feature more than 35 performances, concerts, art exhibitions, lectures and other events. Participants include Garth Fagan Dance, performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pen~a, visual artists Alexis Smith and Wayne Thiebaud, Pacific Chorale, opera singers Delores Ziegler and Earl Patriarco, and the San Francisco Mime Troup. Among the other offerings are the West Coast premiere of Pascal Rioult Dance, Augusto Boal and the Theatre of the Oppressed, visual artists Roland Reiss and Peter Alexander, and a program of student films from all 22 CSU campuses. The exhibitions and performances, which will have ticket prices of $15 or less apiece, are part of a larger program that includes master classes and workshops available to arts students from all over the world. The festival has been held at Humboldt State University for the last eight years and is scheduled to be at Cal State Long Beach for at least three years.

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Manuscript Shown: The American Museum of Natural History in New York will be the exclusive venue for “Leonardo’s Codex Leicester: A Masterpiece of Science,” an exhibition of a 72-page manuscript by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, owned by Microsoft chief Bill Gates. The illustrated notebook was in the collection of the late Los Angeles oilman Armand Hammer from 1980-94 and was displayed at his museum in Westwood. UCLA took over the museum in 1993, after Hammer’s death, and consigned the Leonardo to Christie’s auction house as a hedge against legal expenses incurred by Hammer’s estate. Gates purchased the manuscript in 1994 for $30.8 million. The exhibition is set for Oct. 26 through Dec. 31.

MUSIC

Hot Ticket Cancellation: Newlywed--and controversial--opera singers Roberto Alagna and soprano Angela Gheorghiu have canceled their July 28 engagement at the Hollywood Bowl. The couple, much hyped (especially Alagna, who was touted as the “fourth tenor”) but also much criticized at their Metropolitan Opera debuts in New York in April, decided not to come to the United States after a proposed appearance at the Olympic Arts Festival in Atlanta fell through, according to their management. Replacements for the Bowl concert have not yet been named.