Morning Report - News from June 8, 1999

STAGE

Pasadena Playhouse Gets Matching Grant: Pasadena Playhouse has announced the largest single donation in its 83-year history, a matching grant of $1.2 million from philanthropist and former Pasadenan Rao Makineni, now of Rolling Hills. The grant will be used for ongoing operations. Playhouse officials also announced that the theater will kick off 2000 with “The Kiss at City Hall” (Jan. 16-Feb. 20), a comedy about modern romance by Frank DiPietro, the author of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” The rest of the winter-spring season will include revivals of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” (March 12-April 16) and Noel Coward’s “Fallen Angels” (May 14-June 18, 2000).

Whither Hare’s ‘Via Dolorosa’?: L.A.-based writer and performer Steve Greenstein, who has presented his solo show “Voices From the Holy . . . and Not So Holy Land” in San Diego and Los Angeles, has filed a New York federal court lawsuit charging that the Royal Court Theatre misappropriated “central ideas, elements and structure” of “Voices” when the British company developed David Hare’s solo show, “Via Dolorosa,” which became a hit in London and New York. In response, Royal Court Executive Director Vikki Heywood told the New York Times that Greenstein’s case is “spurious.”

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Cleveland Orchestra’s Future Leader: One of the world’s preeminent symphony orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra, has named Austrian Franz Welser-Most, 38, to become the company’s music director in September 2002, succeeding Christoph von Dohnanyi, who is leaving the company at the end of the 2001-2002 season. Welser-Most, who has signed a five-year contract to lead the company that some believe to be America’s top orchestra, will also continue as music director of Switzerland’s Zurich Opera, a post he’s held since 1995. In announcing the appointment of Welser-Most, chosen after a yearlong search, Cleveland Orchestra President Richard J. Bogomolny called him “a musical leader who [will] continue the artistic legacy for which this organization is known throughout the world” and “an individual who [can] boldly lead us into the 21st century with vision, initiative and distinction.” Meanwhile, the orchestra has invited Dohnanyi to return as a conductor after 2002 in an emeritus position.

TELEVISION

Gone Fishin’?: Although the major TV networks have repeatedly stated they want to run more original programming during the summer to retain viewers, someone apparently forgot to tell ABC. A call to the network’s ratings information hotline reveals the following recording: “Ratings . . . will not be updated again until the 1999-2000 season begins in September. Please call us back then.” . . . That’s despite the fact that ABC News will air new programming on Thursday nights at 10 throughout the summer: “Vanished,” a series offering “accounts of people who literally vanished” will air for six weeks starting June 17, and “Nightline in Primetime: Brave New World,” an eight-week series premiering July 29, will explore “complex issues of the human spirit.”

‘Springer’ to Stay Non-Violent: “The Jerry Springer Show’s” producers are standing by their recent vow to remove violence from the syndicated program. In a statement released Monday, Studios USA said: “Notwithstanding all the testimony, interviews and discussion regarding content on ‘The Jerry Springer Show,’ Studios USA reiterates its policy to distribute a program without violence, physical confrontation or profanity. This policy will not be reversed.” The statement followed Springer’s testimony about the show’s violence before the Chicago City Council on Friday, when he admitted that there have been some staged incidents during the rowdy show’s eight-year run, but said “overwhelmingly, the show is real.” Likening the fights on his show to brawls at a hockey game, Springer observed: “There’s a lot of difference in the violence that happens on the streets of Chicago and the roughhousing that takes place in our studio.”

Stupid Executive Tricks: A former Houston TV station executive who rigged a contest so his mother-in-law would win a $27,000 pickup truck has been sentenced to 60 days in jail and a $10,000 fine. The judge also ordered former KNWS promotions manager Tim Edward Trostle, 41, to attend a Sept. 25 Rice University-U.S. Naval Academy football game wearing a sign saying: “I am a liar, a coward and a thief. I rigged the Channel 51 contest so my mother-in-law would win the pickup truck and give it to me.”

QUICK TAKES

KCBS Channel 2 investigative reporter Joel Grover and the station’s investigative team have won the national Edward R. Murrow award for best news series for KCBS-TV’s expose on auto mechanic rip-offs. The prize will be presented by the Radio-Television News Directors Assn. at its annual convention in September. . . . TV correspondent Forrest Sawyer, who recently left ABC News, will host a series of specials for cable’s Discovery Channel starting on Monday with “On the Inside: Twister Week,” a five-night series of educational programs that Sawyer will host live from the Severe Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. . . . Germany’s “Run Lola Run” beat runners-up “The Red Violin” and “Limbo” to win the best film award at the 25th annual Seattle International Film Festival Sunday. John Sayles (“Limbo”) was named best director, Wim Wenders’ “Buena Vista Social Club” was named best documentary, and acting honors went to Rupert Everett (“An Ideal Husband”) and Piper Laurie (“The Mao Game”). . . . Troubled Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland got a stern warning from a Los Angeles judge on Friday that he could face up to three years in prison if he fails to complete his court-ordered drug-rehabilitation. Weiland, 31, had admitted during a progress hearing that he had been booted out of the Impact House program in Pasadena in April, but said he has already entered another program.