Morning Briefing

ART

Italian Vandal Strikes Again: One of Italy’s most persistent art vandals was put in a Rome psychiatric hospital on Wednesday, a day after he was arrested for scribbling with a gray marker on a Jackson Pollock painting hanging at Rome’s National Gallery of Modern Art. Museum officials said the damage to Pollock’s 1947 painting, “Watery Paths,” was minor. At a hearing Wednesday, Piero Cannata, 52, said he planned to vandalize a painting by Italian Abstract artist Piero Manzoni. “I didn’t find one of his, but I found an equally ugly one and damaged it instead,” the infamous vandal said, referring to the work by American artist Pollock. In 1991, Cannata broke off a toe on the left foot of Michelangelo’s famed statue of David in Florence. Two years later, he used a marker to deface a fresco by Renaissance master Filippo Lippi in Prato’s cathedral. He spent time in mental hospitals after both incidents.

ENTERTAINMENT

Cinematographers Lauded: The cinematographers responsible for “Elizabeth” (Remi Adefarasin), “Shakespeare in Love” (Richard Greatrex), “Saving Private Ryan” (Janusz Kaminski), “The Horse Whisperer” (Robert Richardson) and “The Thin Red Line” (John Toll) are the nominees for the American Society of Cinematographers’ top achievement award. The winner--selected for “artistic and innovative cinematography in narrative filmmaking”--will be named Feb. 21.

‘GMA’ Ratings Up 25%: Nielsen ratings for Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson’s first week as hosts of ABC’s struggling “Good Morning America” were 25% higher than the show’s average numbers during the last three months of 1998. However, “GMA’s” daily average of 4.1 million viewers last week still ranked a distant second to the average 6.1 million viewers for NBC’s “Today.” CBS’ “This Morning” averaged 3 million viewers.

Pop Chart: Silkk the Shocker is a “Made Man” at No. 1. The new album from the New Orleans rapper topped the nation’s album chart this week with 240,000 copies sold. The third album from Silkk, the younger brother of rap mogul Master P, racked up 53,000 copies more than the debut-week performance of “Live at Luther College . . ., “ from Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds--a side project from the leader of the Dave Matthews Band and a longtime collaborator. Last week’s No. 1, teen pop singer Britney Spears’ ” . . . Baby One More Time,” slipped to No. 3.

QUICK TAKES

As expected, KCBS-TV will shuffle its afternoon lineup on Monday, featuring an expanded newscast starting a half-hour earlier at 4:30 p.m. Linda Alvarez and Larry Carroll will anchor the entire hour. Meanwhile, “The Howie Mandel Show” moves to the crowded talk hour of 3 p.m., followed by “Inside Edition” at 4 p.m. . . . Seeking new challenges, L.A. Opera Executive Director Patricia Mitchell will leave the company in June after 11 years in the post. . . . Production shut down this week on ABC’s first-year Jeremy Piven drama, “Cupid,” which has failed to catch on in the ratings. The network has not yet determined the series’ final air date. . . . The first studio album from Steely Dan in 19 years, tentatively titled “Two Against Nature,” is scheduled for release in June on Giant Records.