Advertisement

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTSFROM THE TIMES< NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS

Share

HOME VIDEO

Disney Recall: The Walt Disney Co. on Friday recalled 3.4 million copies of its home video “The Rescuers,” saying two frames of the 110,000-frame animated film about heroic mice contained “objectionable” background images. It was the first time that Disney has recalled a videotape for that reason, although various groups previously have claimed that “The Lion King” and “The Little Mermaid” contained inappropriate images or language. Those claims were never proven. A Disney spokeswoman said the images in “The Rescuers” were inserted during production but she declined to say what they were or who placed them in the film. Disney noted that the two images cannot be seen in ordinary viewing because the film runs too fast--30 frames per second on video. “Rescuers,” Disney’s 23rd animated movie, is about two mice on an adventure to save a young girl trapped on a riverboat. The company said the movie is being recalled “to keep its promise to families that they can trust and rely on the Disney brand.”

PEOPLE

Honoring Two Men: John Travolta will receive a special award from the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. at the fourth annual Critics’ Choice Awards on Jan. 25 in Los Angeles. Travolta, currently starring in “A Civil Action,” will be the first recipient of the Alan J. Pakula Award, named after the late filmmaker and given to an actor, director, writer or producer “for artistic excellence while illuminating issues of great social and political importance.” Pakula died in an automobile accident in Long Island on Nov. 19 at the age of 70. His films include “All the President’s Men,” “The Devil’s Own,” “Klute,” “Presumed Innocent” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” “To say that I am thrilled to hear of my Alan J. Pakula Award would be a true understatement,” Travolta said. “I am so proud of ‘A Civil Action’ and ‘Primary Colors,’ and for the BFCA to recognize both performances and validate my choices in film is such a great honor.” BFCA President Joey Berlin said both of Travolta’s 1998 films “address vital concerns of the American body politic.”

Award for Jewison: Canadian-born producer-director Norman F. Jewison, 72, has been voted the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The award will be presented at the 71st annual awards ceremonies March 21. Jewison’s films have earned more than 10 Academy Awards and 45 nominations, including the best picture Oscar for “In the Heat of the Night” (1967). Four other Jewison films received best picture nominations: “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “A Soldier’s Story” and “Moonstruck.” Academy President Robert Rehme on Friday called Jewison “an eclectic and sensitive producer-director whose films paint evocative pictures of the human experience that have become icons of American life.” Jewison is the 31st person to receive the Thalberg Award, which was inaugurated in 1937 for “creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.”

Advertisement

Animated Speech: Top animators Chuck Jones and Joseph Barbera will speak at the Skirball Cultural Center’s presentation Sunday of “Freleng: Frame by Frame,” a video program about the late Warner Bros. animator and five-time Oscar winner Friz Freleng. The 3 p.m. program (admission $10) is in conjunction with the Skirball’s opening of the exhibition “That’s Not All Folks--The Art of Friz Freleng,” which will remain on view through March 14.

TELEVISION

G’Nite ‘Nanny’: “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher announced Friday on “Entertainment Tonight” that this will be the last season of the CBS series. Drescher said it was time. After six seasons, she said, she’s ready to move on. “For me personally . . . I’ve always stayed too long at the fair my whole life, and I’m not going to do that with ‘The Nanny.’ I think it’s better for everybody’s career if we go out while we’re on top . . . instead of sort of hanging on.”

‘60 Minutes’ in Court: CBS’ “60 Minutes” filed a motion Friday to quash a Dec. 23 subpoena from a U.S. Marine Corps prosecutor, seeking interviews from an unfinished report by Mike Wallace. The report, which doesn’t have an airdate, is about the Marine Corps’ conduct surrounding the February 1998 incident in which a Marine warplane severed an Italian ski-lift cable, killing 20. First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, retained by CBS to fight the subpoena, said the Marine Corps wants all material relating to interviews Wallace has done with the Marine officers charged in the incident, an unusual request because the report hasn’t yet aired.

QUICK TAKES

The rock ‘n’ roll group KISS will perform during the Super Bowl Pregame Show on Jan. 31, and Cher will sing the national anthem. . . . Country singer Tanya Tucker, 40, plans to wed songwriter Jerry Laseter, 37, in a chapel she’s having built at her Nashville-area home. No date has been set. It will be the first marriage for Tucker, who has two children. . . . Harrison Ford topped the annual Harris Poll as America’s favorite movie star, with the late John Wayne coming in second, Mel Gibson third and last year’s leader, Clint Eastwood, tying with Tom Cruise for fourth place. The highest-ranking woman was Julia Roberts, in 15th place. The annual poll is based on interviews with 1,010 adults nationwide.

Advertisement