MORNING REPORT - News from Dec. 22, 2000

MOVIES

Recovering From Bypass Surgery: Mickey Rooney, 80, underwent multiple bypass heart surgery Wednesday, two days after blockages were discovered as he tested a heart scanning machine he’d been asked to promote. Doctors confirmed that he had complete blockage of one artery and partial blockage of another. “He’s in great shape and should be home on Christmas Day,” the actor’s manager said Thursday. He said Rooney has vowed to be back onstage in February with wife Jan in their touring show, “One Man--One Wife.” Not surprisingly, Rooney will also become national spokesman for the heart machine.

*

More Critics’ Picks: The Broadcast Film Critics Assn., made up of members from throughout the United States and Canada, has joined the chorus of those giving their year-end picks, heralding (in alphabetical order) “Almost Famous,” “Billy Elliot,” “Cast Away,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Gladiator,” “Quills,” “Thirteen Days,” “Traffic,” “Wonder Boys” and “You Can Count on Me” as the year’s best films. The group also named Russell Crowe (“Gladiator”) best actor, Julia Roberts (“Erin Brockovich”) best actress, Joaquin Phoenix (“Gladiator,” “Quills,” “The Yards”) best supporting actor, Frances McDormand (“Almost Famous,” “The Wonder Boys”) best supporting actress and Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic,” “Erin Brockovich”) best director. All received Golden Globe nominations Thursday. Meanwhile, the San Diego Film Critics have selected another Golden Globe nominee, Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous,” as the best film of 2000, and named Crowe best director. The group’s acting picks: Crowe for best actor, Roberts in a tie with Laura Linney (“You Can Count on Me”) for best actress, McDormand (“Almost Famous”) best supporting actress and Benicio Del Toro (“Traffic”) best supporting actor.

VISUAL ART

An Act of Forgiveness: In an act of reconciliation over the Holocaust, Jewish art dealer Heinz Berggruen on Thursday sold a lifetime’s collection of Picassos and other artworks to the Germany he once fled--for a fraction of their worth. “This is a thank you,” Berggruen said in his native Berlin, which he fled after Hitler took power. “For the fact life was good for me here. That the terrible years are past.” Berggruen, now 86, escaped Hitler’s death camps by heading for the United States in 1936. A successful art dealer in Paris after World War II, he befriended Pablo Picasso and began to collect his paintings, building up what is regarded as one of the finest collections of the Spanish artist’s works anywhere. The German government paid only about $115 million for the entire collection (single Picassos have brought upward of $50 million at auction in recent years), prompting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to call Berggruen’s deal “an extraordinarily noble, humane gesture [and] also a symbol of reconciliation and of confidence in the Germany of today.” The collection, which also includes works by Paul Klee, Henri Matisse and Alberto Giacometti, will continue to be on view at Berlin’s baroque Charlottenburg Castle, where the works have hung since Berggruen lent them to Berlin four years ago. In 1988, Berggruen gave some 90 works by Klee to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

PERFORMING ARTS

Florida Performance Hall Planned: The Miami-Dade County Commission has approved a $255-million contract to build a performing arts center first proposed 21 years ago, the Miami Herald has reported. The center is scheduled to open in 2004 as the home of five resident companies--the Concert Assn. of Florida, the New World Symphony, the Florida Grand Opera, the Miami City Ballet and the Florida Philharmonic. Famed architect Cesar Pelli will design two theaters on land donated by Sears and Knight Ridder. Pelli and Associates is also designing a new theater for South Coast Repertory and working on expansion plans for the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

*

Ailey Premieres: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has scheduled five Southern California premieres for its next Los Angeles engagement, March 14-18 at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The five premieres are artistic director Judith Jamison’s “Double Exposure,” Ronald K. Brown’s “Grace,” Carmen de Lavallade’s “Sweet Bitter Love,” Alonzo King’s “Following the Subtle Current Upstream” and Dwight Rhoden’s “Chocolate Sessions.” The King and De Lavallade pieces are the first ballets they have choreographed for the Ailey company.

QUICK TAKES

Sean Connery, currently starring in “Finding Forrester,” will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Nortel Networks Palm Springs International Film Festival on Jan. 13. . . . Universal Studios Home Video will release “Meet the Parents,” starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, on VHS and DVD on March 6. . . . UPN has picked up already-aired episodes of MTV’s Claymation in-the-ring series “Celebrity Deathmatch.” It will air the program Fridays at 8:30 p.m. following the UPN’s own forthcoming 8 p.m. Claymation series, “Gary & Mike.” The new lineup premieres Jan. 12. A new season of “Celebrity Deathmatch,” meanwhile, begins Jan. 7 on MTV. . . . Mark Ruffalo, the star of “You Can Count on Me,” is directing “Margaret” at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood. It opens Jan. 19. . . . Rapper-actor LL Cool J will join Britney Spears as co-host of the 28th annual American Music Awards Jan. 8 on ABC. . . . Singer Toni Braxton has announced her engagement to musician-producer Keri Lewis. The couple met when Lewis’ R&B; group, Mint Condition, toured with Braxton in 1997.