Rosie’s Hectic Reduced Schedule

Rosie O’Donnell does a guest shot on a Drew Carey show this week--not Carey’s ABC sitcom, but the live improvisational comedy show Carey and friends put on regularly at the Improv in Hollywood. O’Donnell, who will be in town to host the Grammy Awards on Feb. 23, joins Carey, Ryan Stiles and other improv performers Thursday night at 9 at the comedy club on Melrose Avenue, participating in games and sketches, a portion of which will air on a future broadcast of O’Donnell’s syndicated daytime talk show, which airs in Los Angeles weekdays at 3 on KNBC. “I’m trying to cut down on my schedule,” O’Donnell said recently, noting that she has a newly adopted infant at home. But in recent weeks, O’Donnell has certainly been branching out. First, she offered herself as a guest host for CBS’ “The Late Show,” as David Letterman recovers from quintuple bypass surgery. Then she put herself on the phone as a contestant’s lifeline on the ABC quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” She can also be seen on the Feb. 21 episode of the NBC drama “Third Watch,” playing a paramedic. (Note to interested fans: You’re advised to get to the Improv by 7:30 p.m. if you want a seat).

Honoring Documentaries Fairly

On Tuesday, two-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman will step before the TV cameras before the crack of dawn at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills to formally announce this year’s Oscar nominations. But while Hoffman will be announcing the nominees in the major categories like best picture, actor, actress and director, the academy will be paying special attention to the public reaction from a lesser-noticed category: feature-length documentaries. For years, the judging of documentaries has generated possibly more controversy than any other single category. But now, the academy believes it has finally devised a method that could avoid that controversy and allow some of the better-known documentaries to get nominated--something that didn’t always happen in the past. For example, the academy was heavily criticized a few years ago for snubbing the popular basketball-themed documentary “Hoop Dreams.” The academy also wrestled with complaints that too few members of the documentary committee were watching the films and, at times, were even shutting off the films early if they weren’t received well. The problem was that each year about 60 documentaries would be submitted for consideration, far too many for committee members to sit through. So, the academy has changed its rules to streamline the voting process. This year, the field was reduced from about 60 films to only 12 by having academy members who make documentaries whittle down the entries to a manageable number. It was a hard nut to swallow, admits Bruce Davis, the academy’s executive director, because “we have not done that in any categories before.” But so far, he noted, it seems to be working. “We asked all the entrants to send us 10 taped copies of their films and then we asked our documentarians around the country if they would be willing to do a concentrated period of culling. We had 80 people who volunteered and 77 of them did the viewing.” Once the entries were reduced, the short list was then screened in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco; the five nominees will be taken from that group.

Festival Was Hot, and It May Return

Will the great concert experiment in the Southern California desert get a second chance? It’s been four months since the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival brought Beck, Rage Against the Machine, Chemical Brothers, Moby and dozens of other acts to a vast, grassy field in Indio, and organizers will be quietly working this week to lay the groundwork for the festival’s return--despite losing money the first time around. Officials at Goldenvoice, the show’s promoters, have already reserved dates at the Empire Polo Grounds for the two-day October festival and they are now beginning to talk to artists, agents and managers about assembling the talent. The festival’s return is not a done deal, but Goldenvoice partner Paul Tollett says the prospects look good. “We’re putting tentative feelers out and we’ve heard from some artists already who approached us,” says Paul Tollett, a Goldenvoice partner. “The part that’s exciting is we’re getting so much positive feedback. The thing is, we wouldn’t want to do it unless we’re sure it can live up to the first one.” Fans and artists did give the show strong reviews for its mix of rock, dance and DJ acts, along with its emphasis on creature comforts. The concert industry trade Pollstar added to the praise last week by naming the show the best music festival of 1999, giving it the nod ahead of Woodstock 99, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other nominees that enjoy far more tradition and name recognition. So how would a second Coachella show be different? Less sweat. After watching fans wilt in the early afternoon sun, Tollett and his partners say they would start the show later in the day. “It was hot out there,” Tollett said.

--Compiled by Times staff writers