Morning Report - News from Dec. 11, 1998

Stop the Clock: CBS’ “60 Minutes” will deliver an unusual on-air apology Sunday for airing a story about heroin smuggling that a British panel has determined was a fake. The June 1997 report was based on an award-winning British TV documentary that said Colombia’s Cali drug cartel had opened a new heroin smuggling route to London. After the report aired, an independent panel of lawyers and TV producers determined that the documentary’s producers had faked locations and paid actors to portray drug couriers. Longtime “60 Minutes” executive producer Don Hewitt, who has never before appeared on the show, will read the apology at the end of Sunday’s program, CBS said Thursday. It reads, in part: “We, you and television viewers in 14 other countries were taken. To make amends, we felt obligated to lay it all out in detail and ask you to please accept our apology.” Hewitt, who said the incident will make him reluctant to rely on stories largely reported by others, said that “60 Minutes” interviewed the documentary’s producer and was satisfied he had a good reputation, and also discussed the story with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. No “60 Minutes” employee will be disciplined as a result of the story, he said. The British documentary was also shown at least twice in the United States on cable’s Cinemax, which said Thursday that it will also issue an on-air apology.

ART

Schaefer Joining Getty: Scott J. Schaefer has been appointed curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He was curator of European painting and sculpture at the L.A. County Museum of Art from 1980-87 and then joined Sotheby’s auction house in New York, where he is currently a senior vice president specializing in Old Master paintings and drawings. Schaefer will assume his new position early next year, succeeding David Jaffe, who resigned in September to become senior curator at the National Gallery in London. Before his tenure at LACMA, he was an assistant curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he worked with Getty Director John Walsh.

POP/ROCK

Heading Home: Funk singer Rick James is scheduled to be released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center today, nearly five weeks after suffering a stroke from a broken blood vessel in the back of his neck. A spokesman for James, 50, said: “The doctor estimates that he’ll be at 80% capacity in about six months. . . . It’s a long recovery period.”

Historic Sites and Sounds: A retrospective of voices and songs said to form a “musical tapestry” of the nation’s history will be combined on an album benefiting “Save America’s Treasures,” an effort to preserve and restore historic sites and memorabilia, such as Thomas Edison’s laboratory, Ellis Island and Revolutionary War-era documents. “Sing, America: A Celebration of America and Its Music,” scheduled for a May release, will include songs by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and the New York Philharmonic. A TV show and book are also planned. The “Save America’s Treasures” preservation effort is chaired by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who announced the project Thursday at the historic downtown Los Angeles Theater on Broadway, a site that’s included on the campaign’s list of restoration projects.

Pay-Per-View Unity: The promoters of last weekend’s Hip-Hop Unity Festival at the L.A. Sports Arena say tapes of the show are being edited for a pay-per-view special, and they dismiss criticism of the show’s final lineup, which lacked several advertised headliners. An Edgewater Entertainment executive said Thursday that the concert--attended by about 6,000, half of those paid tickets--was “a great success and a show of peace for the hip-hop community,” despite the absence of billed acts including Shaquille O’Neal, Kurupt and DMX. Among the more than one dozen who did perform were KRS-One and Slick Rick.

QUICK TAKES

Carol Marin, the Chicago-based news anchor who drew headlines in 1997 when she quit the NBC-owned station there because it hired talk host Jerry Springer onto the news staff, has been named a contributor to “60 Minutes II,” which premieres Jan. 13. Marin, who worked on Bryant Gumbel’s CBS News show last season, received a Peabody Award this year for her investigative reporting and “commitment to ethics and integrity.” . . . “The Magnificent Seven” will rejoin CBS’ lineup on Jan. 8, airing Fridays at 9 p.m. in place of “Buddy Faro,” the new Dennis Farina drama, which has been canceled. . . . The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. has declared a record 203 feature films, 25 foreign-language films, 122 TV series and 73 miniseries or TV movies eligible for the 56th annual Golden Globe Awards. Nominations will be announced Thursday.