Morning Report - News from Dec. 22, 1999

ART

Collection Deemed Fake: A collection of watercolors owned by Kansas City’s Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and attributed to famed American artist Georgia O’Keeffe has been declared fake by experts from Washington’s National Gallery of Art. The experts based their decision on the age of the paper on which the works were painted, noting that it is not consistent with the alleged dates of the artworks. Four of the 28 paintings, known collectively as “The Canyon Suite,” were a gift to the Kemper Museum from New York art dealer Gerald Peters. The other 24 had been sold by Peters to the museum’s founder, R. Crosby Kemper Jr., for $5.5 million. Doubts about the works’ authenticity have swirled since early November, when they were omitted from a new catalog of the artist’s complete works. Kemper Museum director Dan Keegan said Monday that the museum had accepted the Washington experts’ findings. “It’s not the outcome we would have hoped for, but one we were prepared for, after having done our own research,” he said. Keegan said dealer Peters previously had promised to pay back the purchase price if the paintings were not authentic.

TELEVISION

Most Mikes to KCBS: KCBS-TV, with seven wins and two merit awards, has topped its rivals in the initial list of winners for the Radio & TV News Assn. of Southern California’s 50th annual Golden Mike Awards. KTLA-TV was second in the count with six Golden Mikes, followed by KNBC-TV and KTTV-TV with four each (KTTV also won a merit award). KCAL-TV, meanwhile, won two Golden Mikes and one merit award. KCOP-TV was left out of the winner’s circle, while KABC-TV, as per the station’s usual policy, did not enter the competition. Yet to be decided are the top awards for best newscasts, with KCBS, KNBC and KCAL squaring off in the 60-minute division, while KNBC, KCBS and San Diego’s KNSD are nominated in the 30-minute category. KCBS, KNBC and KTLA, meanwhile, will vie for best daytime news broadcast. KCET-TV, competing in a separate division, won 10 Golden Mikes, and in the radio categories, KFWB-AM (980) won nine awards, besting KNX-AM (1070), which took eight. The two all-news stations will compete for the Golden Mike in best news broadcast over 15 minutes. Meanwhile, KFI-AM (640) has already been declared the winner for best news broadcast under 15 minutes. The actual awards will be bestowed at the Universal Hilton on Jan. 22.

Sharing the Camera: ABC, CBS and Fox, setting aside their usual competition, have formed a “news cooperative” to share video footage with one another and their affiliate stations. The unusual alliance among rivals is in part a cost-cutting measure in the expensive field of gathering video from around the country on breaking news stories, from plane crashes to campaign appearances. Under the agreement, an ABC affiliate in Washington, for example, could get access to footage of a hostage situation in Phoenix shot by a CBS affiliate there. But the CBS affiliate would retain exclusive rights in the Phoenix market. Such footage could be used, however, on CBS’ “Evening News,” ABC’s “Good Morning America” or by the Fox News Channel, with narration by each network’s own correspondents or anchors. “It’s a guarantee to get access to the basic pictures we need,” said ABC News President David Westin. “It allows ABC to focus on the part that’s most important to us: what you do with the pictures after you get them.” The three network executives were not clear on why NBC, which has its own affiliate news service and the 24-hour cable news channel MSNBC, was not invited to join the consortium. NBC called its exclusion “curious.”

MOVIES

Screen Notes: “Anna and the King” will probably never reach Thai cinema screens because it is disrespectful to the Thai royal family, a Bangkok-based National Film Board official said Tuesday. The movie, starring Jodie Foster as a Victorian English teacher and Hong Kong’s Chow Yun-Fat as Siam’s King Mongkut, contains “several inappropriate scenes” portraying the king and the Thai dynasty, the film censor said. . . . Beverly Hills police stopped several cars early Tuesday for allegedly following a limousine believed to have been carrying actor Jim Carrey. No arrests were made. The limo’s chauffeur had called police about 1:30 a.m. while driving near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, but police didn’t meet up with the cars until the limo was entering Beverly Hills. Carrey had earlier attended the premiere of his new film, “Man on the Moon,” at Mann’s Chinese Theatre.