One of These Costly Nights

Will the Eagles fly at midnight?

That’s midnight on Dec. 31, 1999--the turning of the calendar to Y2K. And the answer is that the venerable group is close to a deal to play a special New Year’s Eve show at the new Staples Center, sources close to the event confirm.

The Hotel Californians--who would be making their first area appearance since concluding a reunion venture in January 1995 at the Rose Bowl--are expected to be joined by Jackson Browne.

Negotiations for the event have gone back and forth for several months as Staples Center construction moves toward its planned October opening. Among the points in flux have been the still-developing seating configuration for concerts at the state-of-the-art arena, as well as--of course--money.

New Year’s Eve fees for top pop acts are traditionally double or even triple the norm. For this special year, they’re expected to skyrocket to at least four or five time what acts generally command, with ticket prices soaring as well.

A comparable event being negotiated for the Rolling Stones on New Year’s Eve at New York’s Madison Square Garden is projected to come with an average ticket price of about $600.

There’s some speculation that Staples may be willing to eat a little of the cost to keep ticket prices lower, since a goal of the show would be to draw attention and goodwill to the venue. Word is while the prime seats for the Eagles would be quite pricey, efforts would be made to keep a large portion of the tickets in a relatively reasonable $50 to $100 range.

Staples management is also said to have been courting a possible backup, should the Eagles not pan out. With that in mind, a tentative proposal was reportedly made to radio station KROQ-FM (106.7) to hold a variation of its popular annual Almost Acoustic Christmas there.

KROQ officials confirmed that the topic has come up, but said there have not been further discussions. One concern among promoters is that parents of the young teens who routinely populate much of the KROQ audience might be loath to let their kids loose in downtown on a night with potential for celebratory wildness.

Still, there’s a chance for a KROQ show at the site on another date, with the old locale of the seasonal shows, the Universal Amphitheatre, booked by the Rockettes, as it was last year. The 1998 alternative, the Shrine Auditorium, was not considered as good for the event due to cost (full production equipment had to be brought in, whereas the Universal has an in-house setup) and atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the Eagles would have at least one major name as competition on New Year’s Eve: Chief parrothead Jimmy Buffett is reportedly being lined up to play then at the Universal, a relatively intimate setting for him with 6,000 seats as opposed to the more than 15,000 at his most recent L.A. venue, the Hollywood Bowl.

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WU WORLD: Get set for a new round of releases from the ranks of the Wu-Tang Clan--not just on albums, but on film. Members of the hip-hop combine will join Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Brooke Shields in the upcoming James Toback movie “Black and White,” which plays with notions of cultural identity. The Clan is also overseeing the soundtrack album.

It’s one of two upcoming Wu-Tang spinoffs bringing what the artists hope will be seen as positive messages.

“The movie speaks to everybody,” says Power, one of the executives of the Wu-Tang business empire and a lead player in the film, in which all scenes were improvised. “The message is that it’s no matter whether you’re black or white, everybody’s got faults and everybody’s got positive sides. It’s just a matter of who’s putting out the message.”

Meanwhile, with the Clan’s next album due in 2000, several members are gearing up with solo projects. Inspectah Deck has “Uncontrollable Substance” due May 19, while Raekwon is set with “Immobilarity,” his first solo project since 1995’s “Only Built 4 Cuban Lynx,” due later in the summer.

The title, Raekwon explains, comes from “The Godfather III,” where Immobiliare is the name of the company Michael Corleone sets up in an attempt to right some past wrongs. In his case, Raekwon wants to correct the frequent message that money is all that matters.

“I’m not knocking people wanting money,” he says. “But I want to go past the message that all that glitters is gold, ‘cause it’s not. . . . We’re striving to be better, ‘cause that’s what you’re worth. Know your values.”

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TAYLOR MADE: Kenneth Starr imposed rules on questions that Monica Lewinsky could answer in interviews. Singer-songwriter Sally Taylor is imposing rules on what interviewers can write about her.

Though virtually unknown, the 23-year-old musician has set conditions for interviews: Headlines of stories cannot mention her parents, and only 20% of each article can dwell on her family.

Oh yeah, her parents are James Taylor and Carly Simon.

It’s understandable that the Boulder, Colo.-based Taylor, who recently released her debut album “Tomboy Bride” on her own label, worries their fame might divert attention from her. Still, she apparently signed off on a press release hyping her debut at the Troubadour this weekend with a headline noting the club was where Simon was discovered.

“Some reporters took advantage of her, so she laid down some rules,” says her publicist, Ariel Hyatt. “She’s not opposed to talking about where she comes from and is not stupid--she knows that people are talking to her in part because of who her parents are. She just doesn’t want it to be the main focus.”