MORNING REPORT - News from Aug. 4, 2000

POP/ROCK

Rapper Hospitalized: Los Angeles rapper Chaly 2na, a member of Jurassic 5 and a part-time member of Ozomatli, suffered a skull fracture early Wednesday morning when the Jurassic 5 tour bus skidded off a Tennessee highway and into a ditch, according to a spokesman for the Los Angeles rap group’s label. The other five members also suffered minor injuries. The cause of the 3 a.m. crash is under investigation. Surgeons at a Nashville hospital operated on 2na to relieve pressure on his brain and remove bone fragments, and they also put two metal plates into his skull for stability, according to an Interscope spokesman. The group, which has enjoyed critical acclaim for its recently released debut album, “Quality Control,” has been forced to cancel its appearances during the final week of the Vans Warped tour, a traveling festival also featuring Green Day, Papa Roach and others.

A Stitch in Time (Finally): The Knitting Factory Hollywood nightclub, whose scheduled opening in early June was postponed due to construction delays, will now open next Friday with a performance by the Posies. Knitting Factory CEO Michael Dorf says the official grand opening will be Sept. 18, but the Hollywood Boulevard venue will mount a full schedule before that. Kristin Hersh, Alex Paterson (the Orb), Vic Chesnutt and El Vez are among the confirmed main room performers. The smaller AlterKnit Lounge will begin performances on Aug. 16 with Thaddeus Graham.

THE ARTS

Wild at Art: A cow sculpture created by quirky director David Lynch for a public art show in New York is being returned to California without going on display, the New York Times reported Thursday. Lynch, known for his offbeat films “Wild at Heart,” “Blue Velvet” and the eerie TV series “Twin Peaks,” chopped off his cow sculpture’s head and stuck forks and knives into its back. He also covered parts of the cow with a reddish, blood-like substance. “I thought it was Charles Manson,” city Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern told the Times. “David Lynch should stick to his day job, making movies.” CowParade NYC 2000 features several hundred fiberglass cows decorated by artists and schoolchildren and displayed on sidewalks around the city. Lynch said he was disappointed to be excluded.

Disney Eyes Times Square Property: Disney is in the market for more Times Square theater real estate, Inside.Com reported Thursday. The corporation, which led the redevelopment of the once-tawdry district in midtown Manhattan, wants to build or lease one or more Broadway theaters on a long-term basis and consolidate its New York-based corporate operations into one location. A high-ranking Disney executive confirmed that the company wants to add to its growing theater and TV presence in New York, including its 1,900-seat New Amsterdam Theater and a 200-seat space upstairs, and ABC’s “Good Morning America” studio theater. Part of Disney’s desire for more theaters comes from its high rent payments for stage productions of “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aida,” as well as its need for space to stage half a dozen musicals in development, such as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

TELEVISION

“Survivor,” 1; Internet, 0: So much for Internet sleuthing. Widely circulated reports that Gervase Petersen was the big winner of CBS’ “Survivor” were proved to be incorrect when he was “voted out” at the end of Wednesday’s episode. The Web site

https://www.survivorsucks.com, one of those to distribute the rumor, credited producer Mark Burnett with “one of the best disinformation campaigns in network television history.” CBS has said it will neither confirm nor deny rumors regarding the outcome of the show, which continues to sizzle in the ratings, with an estimated 26.8 million people tuning in this week.

QUICK TAKES

Caught off-guard, “Today” show co-host Katie Couric blanched and mouthed the words “Did you see that?” after a woman flashed her breasts on Wednesday’s show during a camera pan of the morning crowd. “We were looking for something to spice up the Republican convention coverage,” deadpanned executive producer Jeff Zucker. Surprisingly, it was the first such incident since the show moved to the street-level studio in 1993. The moment was cut from the West Coast feed of the program. . . . A crowd of 4,000 people rushed the stage at a No Doubt concert Wednesday in Mesa, Ariz., injuring five people who were crushed against a railing or trampled. Three people at the Mesa Amphitheater show were hospitalized, said Mesa Fire Deputy Battalion Chief Mary Cameli. None of the injuries was serious, Cameli said. Three of the injured were minors, she said. . . . “The View” had its best single-day performance ever on July 28, garnering 4.3 million viewers and 1.7 million women ages 18 to 49, as Kathie Lee Gifford sat down to chat after her final day as co-host of “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.” . . . The k.d. lang and Shelby Lynne show scheduled for Sept. 6 and 7 at the Universal Amphitheatre has been postponed due to tour routing issues. The shows will probably be moved to November. . . . The Washington Ballet will visit Cuba in October to perform in an international dance festival, a further step in increasing U.S. cultural exchanges with the communist-ruled island, a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday. About 100 dancers, choreographers, ballet students and arts patrons will travel to Cuba as “cultural ambassadors” to attend the Oct. 23-29 International Dance Festival hosted in Havana by Cuba’s National Ballet. . . . “Hollow Man” director Paul Verhoeven tells “E! News Daily” today that, contrary to previous reports, he is interested in directing “Basic Instinct 2,” starring Sharon Stone and would be meeting with Stone next week to try to iron out a deal. . . . Actress Dyan Cannon, who most recently appeared as Judge Jennifer “Whipper” Cone on “Ally McBeal,” will join the cast of the NBC midseason comedy series “Three Sisters.”