ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS

THE ARTS

Martha Graham Trust Forbids Use of Her Name: In a strongly worded letter, lawyers for the Martha Graham Trust (legal owners of her name, image, technique and repertory) are demanding that the now-defunct Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance stop using the name of the late pioneering modern dance choreographer in connection with any of its activities--including its certificate of incorporation, Web site and any future performances. At the end of May, the center closed the Martha Graham Dance Company and school, citing financial problems, after which the trust declared the previous licensing agreement with the center null and void. In addition to mounting a protest, dancers from the company have scheduled performances later this summer of works by choreographers other than Graham, but still using the Graham Dance Company name. Robert N. Solomon, attorney for the center, said, “We don’t plan to respond to this unfounded demand . . . that only hurts Martha’s name.”

Something Wilde: The literary world buzzed this week with the dramatic revelation that a “lost,” unfinished play by Oscar Wilde had been unearthed by an amateur enthusiast for the writer. A great discovery--except that it was not a new discovery at all. The work, “A Wife’s Tragedy,” is a manuscript in the flamboyant playwright’s own hand. It was billed this week as a work that provides fresh insights into Wilde’s betrayal of his wife as he embarked on a destructive series of homosexual adventures. The BBC and other publications reported that Neal Kydd, a British Wilde fan, unearthed the manuscript while looking through Wilde’s works in UCLA’s W.A. Clark Library. Merlin Holland, the playwright’s grandson, told Reuters that Wilde scholars have known about it for years. “It certainly has not been dug out of a deep and dusty vault.” On top of that, the head of reader services at the library confirmed that Kydd has never visited the Clark Library at UCLA.

POP/ROCK

Newton-John to Appear at Olympics: Olivia Newton-John will lead an Australian cast for next month’s opening ceremony at the 2000 Olympics. The singer and star of the hit movie “Grease” will perform with John Farnham, who gained international fame in the 1960s with the pop hit “Sadie the Cleaning Lady”; Julie Anthony, Tina Arena and bush balladist John Williamson, who’ll sing the Australian traditional tune “Waltzing Matilda.” In announcing the cast, the director of ceremonies, Ric Birch, said the Sept. 15 opening ceremony had presented him with his most complicated and technically complex task. Birch also orchestrated the opener at Barcelona in 1992.

Viva Las Vegas: The estate of Elvis Presley is re-releasing the 1970 concert film “Elvis, That’s the Way It Is.” The 97-minute documentary on Presley’s Las Vegas concerts will debut Saturday in Memphis as part of Elvis Tribute Week, the annual fan pilgrimage to the King’s hometown to commemorate the anniversary of his death, Aug. 16, 1977. The show will be presented on Turner Classic Movies on Jan. 8, which would have been Presley’s 65th birthday. An annual candlelight procession past Presley’s Graceland grave will be broadcast on a new Web site, https://www.elvispresley.com, beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

STAGE

‘Me & Mrs. Jones,’ the Musical: Lou Rawls will star in the stage show “Me & Mrs. Jones,” based on the real-life story and hit record about a woman’s romance with a judge. The show begins a nationwide tour next spring with rehearsals starting this month in Los Angeles. “Me & Mrs. Jones” was produced by songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Inspiration for a musical came when Rawls guest-starred in Broadway’s “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” last year. “ ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ is based on the huge hits written by Lieber and Stoller,” Rawls said Thursday. “The thought occurred to me, ‘Why not a Gamble and Huff musical?’ So I invited Kenny Gamble to see one of my shows on Broadway, and he told me to go ahead and put it together.” The show is being produced by the newly formed Philadelphia Sound Co., which recently acquired the musical theatrical rights to the Gamble and Huff catalog of hits from Warner/Chappell Music.

QUICK TAKES

Actress Elizabeth Taylor, 68, was released Wednesday from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had spent six days being treated for a mild case of pneumonia, her spokesman Warren Cowan said. . . . Controversial rapper Eminem will be in concert at the Great Western Forum on Sept. 9, where he will perform as part of the ACG Indoor professional snowboard competition. Tickets for the event, which also features the Kottonmouth Kings and Mixmaster Mike, are on sale now. . . . The sketch comedy troupe The Upright Citizens Brigade, which recently ended its run on Comedy Central, will perform two live shows at the ACME Comedy Theater in Hollywood, Aug. 22 and 29. Show times are 8 p.m. and tickets are $6. Call (323) 960-7806. . . . A woman accused of repeatedly harassing musician Jackson Browne and his sister pleaded no contest Wednesday to stalking. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert P. O’Neill ordered Roberta Catherine Rasp, 47, to serve five years’ probation and to stay away from the victims. . . . Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed (“Bloom County”) will make his directorial debut with “Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big,” a seven-minute computer-animated film produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Storyopolis. The short will screen in theaters in the fall. . . . Billy Crystal and John Goodman will lend their voices to Disney/Pixar’s animated comedy adventure, “Monsters, Inc,” scheduled for release in November 2001. The film will also feature the voices of James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly and Bonnie Hunt.