MORNING REPORT - News from Dec. 19, 2000

TELEVISION

‘Survivor’ vs. ‘Friends’: Ending weeks of speculation, CBS has scheduled “Survivor: The Australian Outback” to run at 8 p.m. on Thursdays beginning in February, challenging NBC’s “Friends.” The program will make its debut after the Super Bowl on Jan. 28, with the first Thursday broadcast airing on Feb. 1. Placing the show on Thursdays threatens to hurt NBC’s “Must-See TV” lineup but may also limit tune-in for “Survivor,” which isn’t good news for the major sponsors who paid $12 million to participate this time around. CBS hasn’t announced other scheduling moves but is expected to launch a new drama--perhaps a cop show from “NYPD Blue” co-creator David Milch--in the hour after “Survivor.”

POP/ROCK

Investigating K-Ci: LAPD detectives investigating indecent exposure accusations against R&B; singer K-Ci will seek a videotape of his performance Saturday at the Shrine Auditorium, a department spokesman said Monday. The 31-year-old singer, born Cedric Hailey and a member of the duo K-Ci & JoJo, briefly dropped his boxer shorts during the opening number of the Jingle Ball holiday concert hosted by KIIS-FM (102.7). The crowd of about 4,000 consisted mostly of teenagers and their parents. Some parents promptly left the show with their children in tow while others used cell phones to call police. Responding officers were told the singer had left the venue immediately after his set, skipping scheduled press interviews. Joe Buscaino, an LAPD spokesman, said Monday that about a dozen complaints had been lodged and that detectives were pursuing the case. “There was videotape of the incident and detectives are handling this and basically just trying to get ahold of that video tape,” he said. “Within the next couple of days we should have more.” A spokeswoman at the R&B; duo’s label, MCA Records, declined comment Monday while officials at KIIS-FM and the group’s management could not be reached for comment. The radio station’s general manager, Roy Laughlin, issued an apology on Saturday that said, “We do not condone such behavior.”

*

Raising Tiger Lily: Rock star Bob Geldof has been awarded custody of the orphaned daughter of his former wife, Paula Yates, and INXS singer Michael Hutchence. Britain’s High Court said Monday it gave Geldof custody of 4-year-old Tiger Lily for a year so she could live with her three half-sisters from Yates’ earlier marriage to Geldof. Geldof has been caring for Tiger Lily since September, when Yates was found dead in her London home of an apparent drug overdose. Hutchence committed suicide in an Australian hotel room three years ago. The London court rejected a custody application from Hutchence’s half-sister Tina Shorr, who argued Tiger Lily would be better off growing up away from the publicity surrounding Geldof.

MOVIES

Who’s Funding Indian Films?: Taped phone conversations between an Indian film producer and an alleged mafia leader have sparked a police investigation into whether organized crime networks are helping fund India’s huge film industry, which produces a staggering 800 movies a year. Authorities are looking into reports that alleged mafia leader Chotta Shakeel, now living in Pakistan, funded one of producer Nadeem Rizvi’s upcoming films. As part of the investigation, those connected with the film are being questioned about any industry links with the mafia and whether actors had been coerced into appearing in the movie, police said. Authorities say the organized crime network finances films and then demands repayment at high interest rates from producers and directors if the movies flop at the box office.

*

Seeking Better Access: The U.S. attorney for Massachusetts on Monday sued two U.S. movie chains, saying their theaters with stadium-style seating discriminate against people with disabilities. The lawsuits accuse Hoyts Cinemas Corp. and National Amusements Inc. (which runs Showcase Cinemas and Multiplex Cinemas) of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act and relegating disabled people and those too frail to climb stairs to inferior movie seats. The suits seek court orders to require Hoyts and National Amusements to design, construct and operate their theaters so that they comply with all ADA requirements.

*

Onion Moves: In the wake of increased circulation and several movie deals, “America’s Finest News Source,” otherwise known as the satirical weekly newspaper the Onion, is relocating most of its writers to New York from the paper’s longtime home base of Madison, Wis. The move, designed in part to expand the paper’s writing talent, comes not long after DreamWorks SKG optioned film rights to two of the paper’s faux stories, “10th Circle Added to Rapidly Growing Hell” and “Canadian Girlfriend Unsubstantiated.” The Onion writers, who also wrote the bestseller “Our Dumb Century,” will move to New York in January, said David Miner of 3Arts Entertainment, which handles the Onion’s forays into film and television. Between its print and online editions, the Onion puts its audience at about 1 million.

QUICK TAKES

In a multi-generational lineup, long-lived rockers Aerosmith and boy band ‘N Sync will perform in the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show, which is being produced by MTV. The Jan. 28 game airs on CBS. . . . Fox will bring back “Freakylinks,” its first-year science-fiction drama series from “Blair Witch” producer Gregg Hale, on Jan. 5. The show will air Fridays at 9 p.m. . . . Kathleen Bartels, assistant director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, has been appointed director of the Vancouver Art Gallery in Canada. She will wrap up her 12 1/2-year tenure at MOCA in mid-February and assume her new position in March. . . . The financially troubled Barnes Foundation has received $500,000 from the Pew Charitable Trusts, matching an earlier donation from the J. Paul Getty Trust aimed at rescuing the Merion, Pa., art-appreciation school and its world-famous art collection. The Barnes foundation announced a $15-million emergency fund-raising campaign this summer. . . . The Screen Actors Guild has fined Elizabeth Hurley $100,000 for filming an Estee Lauder commercial during the six-month strike against commercial advertisers. The British actress-model claimed she wasn’t aware of the strike and never received an official strike notice.