Morning Report - News from Dec. 4, 1998

ARCHITECTURE

Gold Medal Status: Frank O. Gehry has been awarded the American Institute of Architects’ highest honor, the 1999 Gold Medal. It’s the latest in a string of awards for Gehry since the 1997 opening of his Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, a building that has been hailed as one of the great architectural works of the century. Last month, the Santa Monica-based Gehry was presented with a National Medal of the Arts at a White House ceremony, and in June, he received the Friedrich Kiesler Prize in Vienna. The Gold Medal Award will be presented in Washington on Feb. 6.

MOVIES

Sundance Slate: The world premiere of Robert Altman’s “Cookie’s Fortune” will open the 1999 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 21 in Salt Lake City. The 11-day festival’s lineup, announced Thursday, features 114 feature films, including 69 world premieres, as well as 58 shorts. Additional premieres include Kate Winslet’s “Titanic” follow-up, “Hideous Kinky”; Mike Figgis’ “The Loss of Sexual Innocence”; Gregg Araki’s “Splendor”; Allison Anders and Kurt Voss’ “Sugar Town”; and Tim Roth’s “The War Zone.”

TELEVISION

‘60 Minutes II’ Start Date Set: CBS announced Thursday that “60 Minutes II,” a second weekly edition of its successful, long-running Sunday newsmagazine, will premiere Jan. 13, airing Wednesday nights from 9 to 10, replacing “To Have and to Hold.” The previously announced correspondents are Dan Rather, Bob Simon, Vicki Mabrey and Charlie Rose.

Oh My God, Kenny a Network President?: Rumors that Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of Comedy Central’s “South Park,” could take over as co-presidents of the cable network are greatly exaggerated, sources said Thursday. A meeting to that effect did take place between MTV Networks Chairman Tom Freston and the “South Park” auteurs. But that hasn’t stopped Comedy Central, and a hired headhunter, from cutting through a wide swath of candidates to replace Doug Herzog as network chief.

Cable Notes: Francis Ford Coppola has agreed to produce 22 episodes of “First Wave,” about a man who discovers “a vast conspiracy of alien infiltration of Earth,” for the Sci-Fi Channel. The series is slated to premiere in March. . . . MTV has green-lighted more than 25 pilot scripts as part of its 1999 development slate, including a show about a “baby sitter/assistant to a tantrum-prone celebrity” from actor-director-writer Adam Goldberg, a science-fiction program about what would happen to the world if everyone over 30 disappeared, and an animated musical variety show from Devo’s Mark Mothersbough. MTV has also renewed several of its existing series, including “Celebrity Death Match” and “Loveline.” . . . The Directors Guild of America is producing four TV specials for the Sundance Channel that aim to give “an informed, enlightened and personal point of view of the filmmaking process.” The first, “The Director’s Vision: Hollywood’s Best Discuss Their Craft”--featuring a panel discussion with last year’s Oscar nominees James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Gus Van Sant, Curtis Hanson and James L. Brooks--airs Dec. 23 at 8 p.m.

POP/ROCK

Bad Rap?: U.S. rapper Coolio was found guilty in Germany on Thursday of charges stemming from a 1997 confrontation with a Stuttgart boutique owner, who said the star punched her when she tried to stop him from taking $940 in merchandise without paying. The rapper, convicted of being an accessory to robbery and causing bodily injury, was sentenced to six months’ probation and fined $17,000. Coolio, 35, has denied punching the woman and said the incident was a misunderstanding. He says he signed autographs in the boutique, and that, in exchange, a clothing company had promised him and his group free outfits.

QUICK TAKES

Chadney’s jazz club near NBC Studios in Burbank has closed after 25 years because the kitchen ceiling and other portions of the 40-year-old building collapsed Wednesday night. Luckily, the club had just opened a new location at 3575 Cahuenga Blvd. W., in Universal City, near the Baked Potato. So all performers that had been scheduled at the Burbank location moved to the Universal City spot. . . . Tickets go on sale tonight at 7 for KROQ-FM’s annual “Almost Acoustic Christmas” concerts, Dec. 11 and 12 at the Shrine Auditorium. . . . The starting time for today’s Hip-Hop Unity Festival at the Los Angeles Sports Arena has been changed from 4 to 7 p.m. . . . The new address for Internet chats today and Saturday by voice actors from “A Bugs’ Life”is https://www.abugslife.com. . . . The correct date for the return of Nathan Lane’s NBC series “Encore! Encore!” is Dec. 16.