MORNING REPORT - News from July 1, 2000

POP/ROCK

Simply a Rest: Rock veteran Tina Turner plans to give up touring at the end of her current world concert series, her publicist said Friday. “Tina said she wants ‘simply a rest,’ ” said publicist Bernard Doherty. “She wants to go out on top, while she is at her best. She doesn’t want to become a faded caricature of herself.” Doherty said Turner would still perform live, but would restrict appearances to special concerts for charity or friends. Turner is also looking at film scripts but has not committed to anything. Doherty said she would only play a strong, determined woman. “She says she has lived the role of a victim and playing one doesn’t interest her,” he said. “She would have loved to be in ‘Gladiator.’ ” Turner will perform 23 concerts in Europe and 40 shows in the United States before calling it quits. Her last concert will be in San Francisco in November.

‘41 Shots’ Captured on Video: The controversy over Bruce Springsteen’s new song “American Skin (41 Shots)” is going from arenas to the television screen. The New Jersey rocker created a flap in recent weeks by adding the song--which revolves around the 1999 fatal shooting of unarmed Amadou Diallo by New York City police--to the playlist of his shows with the E Street Band. Billboard magazine reports that Springsteen has also filmed a music video for the song and tapped Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme to helm it. Demme last collaborated with Springsteen on the video for “Streets of Philadelphia,” a song that appeared in Demme’s 1994 film “Philadelphia.” The reunion tour of Springsteen and E Street Band ends tonight with a performance at Madison Square Garden, also the site of the video’s filming earlier this week, Billboard reports. There has been no word from Springsteen’s camp whether the song will also be released as a single or included on an upcoming album. (See related story, Page F8.)

FILM

May the Force Be With Cuba: Cuban state media was trumpeting the arrival of “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” Friday, thanks to its U.S. director, George Lucas. Because the long-standing U.S. embargo prevents trade with Cuba, Lucas donated the Hollywood blockbuster without fees to the cash-strapped Caribbean island, said state news agency Prensa Latina, quoting Benigno Iglesias, vice president of Cuban cinema institute ICAIC. The 1999 “Star Wars” film will be shown across the island, where Cuba’s cinema-loving populace traditionally has enjoyed Latin American, East European and old American movies more than recent Hollywood productions.

THE ARTS

Cimabue Acquired by London Museum: The National Gallery of Art in London announced Friday it was acquiring its first painting by Cimabue, the 13th century Italian painter, who was a major figure in the development of early Italian art. “The Madonna and Child Enthroned With Angels,” a 10-by-8-inch painting that hung in Benacre Hall, near Lowestoft, England, for more than a century, was only recently identified as the work of Cimabue. The small painting, which was being sold by the estate of Sir John Gooch, who died last year, was the highlight of a pre-auction exhibition held last month at Sotheby’s in Beverly Hills. Sotheby’s was set to auction the painting in London next Thursday, but the painting was withdrawn Friday after the government accepted the Cimabue in lieu of estate taxes and presented it to the National Gallery. It is the first work by the artist to enter a museum collection in England and one of only seven or eight independent panel paintings by Cimabue in existence. A spokeswoman for the J. Paul Getty Museum declined to comment Friday on whether the museum was a potential bidder for the painting.

QUICK TAKES

Sunday marks the 30th anniversary of Casey Kasem’s syndicated radio program “American Top 40.” His weekly countdown is heard on more than 350 stations, according to syndicator AMFM Radio Networks. The No. 1 song when he launched the show in 1970 was Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come”; on this weekend’s show it’s ‘N Sync’s “It’s Gonna Be Me.” The program airs locally on KBIG-FM (104.3). . . . Chris Noth will make his Broadway debut in September in “The Best Man,” according to the New York Times. A former regular on HBO’s “Sex and the City” and NBC’s “Law and Order,” Noth will play Joe Cantwell in the revival, which opens Sept. 17 at the Virginia Theater. . . . Florence Henderson will host “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular,” a one-hour special airing Tuesday at 9 p.m. on NBC. . . . Celesta Billeci, programming coordinator and marketing director for UCLA’s performing arts program, will take over as director of the Arts and Lectures Program at UC Santa Barbara in August. . . . Rolling Stone Ron Wood has checked into a London rehabilitation clinic to be treated for alcohol abuse, his spokesman said Friday. Bernard Doherty confirmed that Wood, 53, had entered the Priory in London on Thursday but declined to give details on the expected length of his stay or the type of treatment he would undergo.