Morning Briefing

TV & MOVIES

The Devil, er Downey, Makes Him Do It: James Garner will be the voice of God and Robert Downey Jr. will speak as the Devil in “God, the Devil and Bob,” a forthcoming animated series set to debut on NBC later this season. The series--the first animated venture from “Roseanne” producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner--also features the voices of French Stewart as Bob (a “modern-day Job” torn between good and evil) and Laurie Metcalf as Bob’s wife.

Kazan Supporters: The Marina del Rey-based Ayn Rand Institute, named for the late author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead,” has announced its support for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ controversial decision to award a lifetime achievement Oscar to Elia Kazan, who informed on his communist colleagues during Hollywood’s blacklist era. Through its Committee for Naming Facts, the group plans to demonstrate outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion during the March 21 Oscar ceremony. Other groups opposing the Kazan honor have already announced plans for their own Oscar protests.

NEA Preserving Film: The National Endowment for the Arts has granted $500,000 to Martin Scorsese’s National Film Preservation Foundation Archives to work with 12 regional film archives to preserve “orphan” films not protected by commercial interests. Institutions involved in the effort include L.A.’s Japanese American National Museum and UCLA’s Film and Television Archive. The films, including fragile newsreels, silent films, home movies and documentaries, will be exhibited at participating archives during the year 2000.

Tribute to Black Performers: The dance team of Harold and Fayard Nicholas, and actors Brock Peters, Paula Kelly and Robert DoQui will be honored by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists tonight during the groups’ joint Black History Month program at SAG’s Wilshire Boulevard headquarters. The event will also include a special tribute to actress Esther Rolle, who died in November.

RADIO

Olney, Totenberg Honored: KCRW-FM’s (89.9) “Which Way, L.A.?” host Warren Olney will be honored as Broadcast Journalist of the Year at the Society of Professional Journalists’ L.A. awards ceremonies Friday at the Biltmore Hotel. Meanwhile, National Public Radio legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg on Wednesday became the first radio journalist to receive the Washington-based National Press Foundation’s top broadcasting honor. Previous recipients have included Ted Koppel, David Brinkley, Barbara Walters and Dan Rather.

QUICK TAKES

CBS’ “60 Minutes” will revisit its controversial broadcast last fall of a Dr. Jack Kevorkian-assisted suicide by airing a report Sunday on five sufferers of the same affliction--Lou Gehrig’s disease--who do not want to end their lives as Thomas Youk did. . . . Bette Midler has a new deal with Columbia TriStar Television to develop a comedy series for as soon as next season. Midler’s last TV deal, with ABC and producers Carsey-Werner, was scrapped because the parties couldn’t agree on a series concept. . . . CNN has granted a leave of absence to “Crossfire” co-host Pat Buchanan while he considers a run for the Republican presidential nomination. He took similar leaves in 1992 and 1996. . . . With the president’s impeachment trial over, MSNBC is saying a quick goodbye to John McLaughlin’s nightly show. It ends March 4 after just six weeks on the air; no replacement has been named.