Uh, So, Like, Do They Still Rule?

“Beavis and Butt-head Do America,” Paramount’s feature film starring America’s favorite pair of annoying adolescents, opens Friday, more than 3 1/2 years after the animated show debuted on MTV. The network claims it remains one of its most highly rated shows, but is the $10-million movie making too late a debut, given that the duo seem to have slipped off the pop culture radar a bit? There was a moment when the boys were everywhere, their jargon dominating the speak of teens and older hipsters alike. But do the ‘toon dudes still have what it takes to conquer the big screen? Or has their window of opportunity closed? “B&B;” creator Mike Judge says he was first approached about doing a movie within two weeks of the show’s MTV debut in March 1993, but plans stalled when the producers initially wanted the film to be live-action. “I said, ‘If I’m going to write a screenplay and do all that work, I want it to be animated,’ ” Judge recounts. The project was further postponed by the Viacom-Paramount Pictures merger. The animation vs. live-action issue was finally settled in August 1995. “Then it was like, ‘Oh God, we’ve got to get this out fast,’ ” the director says. Though Judge admits it might have helped to open earlier, the movie--which the studio originally wanted to release in June--could now serve as counter-programming to a plethora of more serious, adult-oriented fare being released around Christmas. “It probably would have been better to come out sooner,” Judge says. “And who knows? It could be too late. Except that two years ago it had a smaller cult following, but now it seems like more people know about it. Maybe there’s a broader audience for it now.” Huh-huh-huh, he said “broad.”

Well, at Least These Guys Still Rule

Meanwhile, Beavis’ favorite band (note his T-shirt) launches the U.S. leg of its formal “Load” tour this week. And, if conventional wisdom is correct, the music industry will again see the positive effect that touring can have on record sales. At a time when such major acts as R.E.M. and Pearl Jam have mostly sat idle while watching sales of their latest albums slow to a virtual crawl, Metallica and “Load” motor on. The heavy-metal rockers, unlikely headliners on last summer’s Lollapalooza trek, kick off their U.S. tour Thursday at Fresno’s Selland Arena before playing Friday and Saturday at the Forum. Meanwhile, R.E.M. is not touring in support of its slumping “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” collection (about 700,000 copies sold to date) and Pearl Jam, while promising more shows next year, toured only briefly this fall after the release of its faltering “No Code” album (about 1 million sold). Metallica, which recently ended a 41-city European tour, has sold more than 2.75 million copies of “Load” since the album was released last June, and the band’s management team expects the album to sell another 1 million to 2 million copies as the band winds through America, playing more than 90 shows between now and the end of May. “Touring definitely helps,” says the band’s co-manager, Cliff Burnstein, adding that the buzz generated by a group as it passes through each city results in a sales jump. “It’s not one thing in particular, but a lot of little things.” Unlike the truncated Lollapalooza sets, Metallica’s shows on this tour will stretch to nearly 2 1/2 hours and feature more songs from “Load.” Guitarist James Hetfield & Co. will perform at the center of the arena on two revolving stages. The aural assault will include some 225 explosions. Says Burnstein: “We want you to walk out on rubbery legs when you leave the show.”

The NEA’s Era of Lowered Expectations

This week, National Endowment for the Arts grant applicants will receive letters telling them whether they made the cut in the endowment’s first wave of grants under the agency’s new structure. The organization underwent massive restructuring last year after Congress slashed its budget by 40%, reducing the number of grant categories to four and eliminating most individual artist fellowships. And many groups won’t get what they wanted for Christmas: Endowment chair Jane Alexander said Friday that hundreds fewer arts organizations will get grants than in the last round. “There will be a lot of disappointment, but by the same token . . . we have some wonderful grants to announce,” Alexander said. “It’s a bittersweet time, but the endowment is still very much alive--it’s just that we’ve been cut back so severely by Congress that there’s a lot of people who will not have what they used to have. We are urging them to apply next year.” In this round, 300 grants totaling $18 million were made in the new Heritage & Preservation and Education & Access categories. Lucky locals in these categories include: Bella Lewitzky Dance Foundation ($23,000); Contemporary Arts Educational Project Inc. ($75,000); Southwest Museum ($75,000); American Film Institute ($200,000); the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department ($120,000); Inner City Arts ($110,000); L.A. Freewaves ($10,000); the Music Center Opera ($150,000) and the Music Center ($50,000).

Compiled by Times Staff Writers and Contributors