‘Blue Eyes’ Was Awaiting the Right Moment

Hollywood wags still remember the fancy dinner, hosted by Castle Rock Entertainment and Polygram Pictures, to honor the romantic comedy “Mickey Blue Eyes,” starring Hugh Grant, Jeanne Tripplehorn and James Caan. The elegant supper, at which Grant and Tripplehorn schmoozed with one of the film’s producers (and Grant’s leading lady), Elizabeth Hurley, and dozens of invited guests, was held one rainy night at a French villa during the Cannes International Film Festival. But wait, that was last year, during Cannes ‘98! What’s taken so long to release “Mickey” (which opens Friday)? “The fact is the movie probably could have come out six months ago,” acknowledged Castle Rock President Martin Shafer. But a variety of factors made it seem wiser to wait. For one thing, Grant--who had rocketed to stardom in the 1994 hit “Four Weddings and a Funeral” but hit a snag a year later when he was arrested in the company of a prostitute--hadn’t made a movie in three years. Then there was the matter of Universal Pictures’ “Notting Hill,” another romantic comedy starring Grant, with Julia Roberts, which was to be released in late May. “It seemed on the face of it that they had a much stronger movie,” simply because of Roberts’ box-office draw, said Shafer. “We felt Hugh’s star value would be higher after ‘Notting Hill.’ ” So far, at least, it seems the gamble was a smart one: “Notting Hill,” in which Grant plays a mild-mannered bookstore owner who falls for a mega-star, has grossed more than $110 million domestically. But the release of “Mickey,” a fish-out-of-water story about yet another mild-mannered man, who falls into a mob family, will put Grant’s appeal to the test. Can the charming Brit, who also produced and helped rewrite the film, draw audiences without the help of Roberts? A positive sign for “Mickey,” which is being distributed by Warner Bros.: The mob is big this year in Hollywood with the Warners’ hit “Analyze This” and the acclaimed HBO series “The Sopranos.”

‘Historic’ Step for Hip-Hop

Watch this week for hip-hop and rap to jump into prime-time television--and take another stride forward as a genre. The skeptics who once questioned the staying power of hip-hop have long since been silenced as the music movement has become a commercial powerhouse, but the genre has never had its own awards gala on network television. That changes this week with The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards, which will be taped Wednesday at the Pantages Theatre and aired nationally at 8 p.m. Friday on UPN. Performers for the show include Lauryn Hill, Sean “Puffy” Combs, Master P, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg and DMX, while special honors will be bestowed upon genre pioneers Kool DJ Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. “I don’t want to make this show seem like the greatest thing ever, but it is a historic musical moment,” says David Mays, publisher of The Source magazine, which lends its name to the event. “It’s long overdue.” While other awards shows have incorporated hip-hop categories and performers in recent years, the genre is often given short shrift, Mays said. For example, during the 41st annual Grammy Awards broadcast in February, a global audience saw presentations for best album in the genres of pop, rock, country and spoken comedy, but the best rap album award was given off-camera, prompting the winner, Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z, to boycott the show. “That,” says Mays, “is exactly what we’re talking about. It’s gotten better through the years, but half the time if [hip-hop] is included, it’s not featured, or it’s not a priority or the nominees are way off the mark. So now it’s our turn.”

E! Takes a Look at That Age-Old Issue

No doubt eager to prove there’s more to the channel than its “True Hollywood Story” series--a parade of star profiles about glamorous lives that always seem to descend into booze and drugs--E! Entertainment Television embarks on a somewhat more ambitious project this weekend. The network’s premiere hour of a new quarterly program, “Assignment E! With Leeza Gibbons,” is subtitled “Hollywood’s Obsession With Youth” and examines the entertainment industry’s fixation on the youth market as well as the effects of ageism. Airing Sunday, the program features interviews with several actresses--a group especially hard hit by the emphasis on casting teen- and 20-somethings in movie and TV roles--as well as filmmakers, executives and, yes, Riley Weston, the 32-year-old writer who posed as a teenager to land a job on the WB network drama “Felicity.” E! says the program will explore not only ageism’s impact within show-business circles but also its broader cultural influence. Still, fans of the lower-brow documentaries needn’t fear: This week’s “True Hollywood” lineup includes exposes on Karen Carpenter, John Belushi and Freddie Prinze, as well as “Studio 54: Sex, Drugs & Disco.”

L.A.’s Other Art World Gets 15 Minutes of Fame

Camera crews from the film-and-arts network Bravo will descend on Los Angeles today and Tuesday to explore the city’s arts scene, as L.A. becomes the first location for Bravo’s new newsmagazine, “ArtsBreak.” Segments in 1999 will provide--literally--15 minutes of fame to L.A.; Sparta, N.J.; Memphis, Tenn.; Madison, Wis.; Cincinnati; and California’s raisin capital, Fresno. The mini-documentaries will air as bridges between regular Bravo programming on an occasional basis. The Los Angeles installment, to premiere sometime this fall, is produced in partnership with MediaOne of Los Angeles. But don’t expect to see the Getty Center, the Music Center or any institution big and rich enough to be called the Anything Center to be part of these 15 minutes. Instead, the piece will focus on four grass-roots groups: the Venice Dream Team, a nonprofit that offers the photography experience to inner-city kids; the artworks of the battered women and children of Venice’s A Window Between Worlds; the Leimert Park blues club Babe’s and Ricky’s Inn; and Big Dog, Little Dog, a small Hollywood theater company that provides writing, directing and acting workshops whose only criterion for admission is showing up. “The Getty is world-renowned; the nature of this program is that art is very accessible to people, no matter where you are,” says Teresa Elder, senior vice president of MediaOne’s western region.

--Compiled by Times staff writers