Morning Report - News from Jan. 21, 2000
TV & MOVIES
Honorary Oscar: Polish director Andrzej Wajda, whose work has centered on the effects of war, will receive an honorary Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. Wajda was selected for being “one of the most respected filmmakers of our time, a man whose films have given audiences around the world an artist’s view of history, democracy and freedom, and who in so doing has himself become a symbol of courage and hope for millions of people in postwar Europe.” Wajda, a former resistance fighter, has been nominated for three Oscars, for “Land of Promise” (1975), “The Maids of Wilko” (1979) and his controversial profile of Lech Walesa’s Polish Solidarity Movement, “Man of Iron” (1981).
Another Possible Oscar Indicator: The Producers Guild of America has nominated the teams behind “American Beauty,” “Being John Malkovich,” “The Cider House Rules,” “The Hurricane” and “The Insider” for its top film award. TV series nominees are the producers of CBS’ “Judging Amy,” ABC’s “Sports Night,” HBO’s “The Sopranos” and NBC’s “The West Wing” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Winners will be announced March 2.
ABC-NYT Union: ABC News and the New York Times are forming a limited editorial partnership to jointly cover some news events. As part of the agreement, the two entities will co-produce a 15-minute political news Webcast to appear weekdays (beginning Monday and running through the November election) at 10:30 a.m. on both https://www.abcnews.com and https://www.nytimes.com. In addition, they will work together on technology and health segments for ABC’s “20/20” and “Good Morning America.” The pact follows a similar deal between NBC and the Washington Post.
More Game Shows: NBC has ordered two additional episodes of its game show “Twenty One,” with the extra hourlong broadcasts slated for the next two Mondays at 9 p.m. . . . VH1 will premiere “Pop-Up Quiz,” a new weekly music video trivia show from the creators of the hit series “Pop-Up Video,” on Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. . . . PAX TV will premiere “Hollywood Showdown,” which tests contestants’ knowledge of Hollywood history and pop culture, on Monday at 7 p.m. . . . Former sitcom star Mark Curry (“Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper”) will host “Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush,” Comedy Central’s planned remake of a British show in which winning contestants are immediately whisked off to an unknown vacation destination. The cable show is slated to premiere in June.
STAGE
Leaving Highways: Performance artist Tim Miller will step down in February as co-artistic director of Santa Monica’s Highways Performance Space, which he co-founded in 1989. Miller, a veteran solo artist whose works explore gay identity, was one of the so-called NEA Four--a group of provocative performance artists who in 1990 had their National Endowment for the Arts grants revoked. The artists subsequently sued the U.S. government, but in 1998 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against them, saying the government may not restrict what artists say or do, but that Congress can limit the distribution of public funds. “I need to focus my energy on my creative work and activism around gay and lesbian immigration issues,” said Miller, who also was a co-founder of New York’s PS 122, another of the country’s key performance art venues. Miller will remain involved with Highways in an honorary capacity. Performer Danielle Brazell, who has been sharing Highways’ leadership duties with Miller for the last year, will assume full artistic director status.
Taper Changes: In a metamorphosis of the Mark Taper Forum season, Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” is replacing Peter Parnell’s new play about physicist Richard Feynman in the slot that opens on April 6. “Metamorphoses,” which features an onstage swimming pool, premiered in Zimmerman’s home base of Chicago in 1998, but the Taper version will be an extension of a co-production between Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre; it closed in Berkeley last weekend and opens in Seattle on Feb. 21. Director Zimmerman is best known here for her adaptation of “The Arabian Nights” at the Actors’ Gang in 1997. Meanwhile, Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson is now slated to direct the untitled play about Feynman, which is to star Alan Alda and open in early 2001.
QUICK TAKES
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has named Itzhak Perlman principal guest conductor for three years beginning with the 2001-2002 season, marking the famed violinist’s first conducting position with a major orchestra. Perlman, 54, will conduct for three weeks each season, also acting as a soloist at some performances. . . . Geffen Records has filed a breach of contract suit against Courtney Love and her Hole bandmate Eric Erlandson, claiming the group still owes Geffen five albums under a 1992 agreement. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction barring the band from recording as Hole for anyone else. Love’s publicist on Thursday had no comment on the suit. . . . The USA network’s TV movie “The Mary Kay Letourneau Story: All-American Girl” drew more than 6 million viewers Tuesday night to become USA’s highest-rated original production in nearly two years.