MORNING REPORT - News from July 7, 2000

FILM

Lee Gives ‘The Patriot’ a Thumbs-Down: In an angry letter to the Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, filmmaker Spike Lee denounced “The Patriot” as “blatant American Hollywood propaganda” and a “complete whitewashing of history.” Upset that the film excludes slavery in its tale of the Revolutionary War, Lee attacked the movie’s screenwriter: “Where are the slaves? Who’s picking the cotton? Did [Richard] Rodat, a 1981 history graduate of Colgate University, get his dates mixed up? Where were the Native Americans? Did the two Johns--Ford and Wayne--wipe them out already? Why have the film critics completely ignored this in their reviews?” Claiming he and his wife left the theater “fuming,” Lee continued: “When talking about the history of this great country, one can never forget that America was built upon the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of African people. To say otherwise is criminal.” Sony Studios had no comment Thursday regarding the letter.

POP/ROCK

Producer Estefan to Be Honored: The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences will honor Emilio Estefan Jr. as person of the year at a dinner and concert Sept. 11 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, two days before the first Latin Grammy Awards ceremony is held at Staples Center. As a businessman and record producer, Estefan has been a leading force in Latin pop music’s growth in the U.S. over the last decade. Estefan and his wife, Gloria Estefan, also own a Miami restaurant, Bongos, where the nominations for the Latin Grammys are to be announced today at a press conference.

Bryant Scores: Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant is finally set to embark on a new career: recording artist. Yvette Davis, a Columbia Records product manager, said Thursday that Bryant has finished recording an album of rap and hip-hop songs, and that it will be released Aug. 8 by the label. The album was originally scheduled to be released in March but was pushed back because of the NBA playoffs.

TELEVISION

Warrick Declines Award: “All My Children” star Ruth Warrick says she can’t accept a lifetime achievement award in a state that still flies the Confederate flag. Warrick, who plays Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on the long-running soap opera and was in the cast of “Citizen Kane,” was supposed to receive the award July 16 from the South Carolina Arts Commission. But she said she had to turn it down because a new Confederate flag went up on statehouse grounds Saturday as part of the compromise to bring down the flag from the capitol dome. “In my view this was no compromise,” Warrick said this week. “It was a deliberate affront to the African Americans who see it as a sign of oppression and hate.” Warrick was scheduled to receive the award for her work on television and in movies.

Smigel Signs With Comedy Central: Comedy writer Robert Smigel, best known for his dog puppet Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, which appears regularly on NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” is creating a new series for Comedy Central, the Hollywood Reporter said Thursday. The series, set to debut on the cable network later this year, will feature new work and some of the animated shorts that Smigel does for “Saturday Night Live,” as well as puppets--though an appearance by Triumph is still under negotiation.

THE ARTS

Dance Awards Put on Hold: The annual Lester Horton Dance Awards, honoring excellence in the Southern California community, are being postponed until next spring, says the board of the Dance Resource Center, a local service organization. Named after a Los Angeles modern dance pioneer and administered by the Dance Resource Center, the Hortons were distributed in largely informal summer events over the past eight years. Plans for their resumption next year involve a double slate of winners--honoring achievements in both 1999 and 2000--and the possibility of performances by some of the nominees.

Boston Ballet Sued: Three years after the death of her daughter, Heidi Guenther, Patricia Harrington has filed a lawsuit accusing the Boston Ballet and its artistic director, Anna Marie Holmes, of being “recklessly and grossly negligent” in asking Guenther to lose weight. When Guenther died in 1997 at age 22, the Boston Ballet dancer stood 5 foot 3 and weighed 93 pounds. The suit, filed June 29, claims the ballet knew or should have known that Guenther suffered from the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. The autopsy found an irregular heartbeat to be the cause of death. While the autopsy did not draw a link between anorexia and the irregular heartbeat, the suit claims that Guenther’s eating disorder was the cause of the heart problem. According to the suit, the ballet told Guenther in 1994 and 1995 that she needed to lose weight to join the corps de ballet. Ballet spokesman John Michael Kennedy declined to comment, saying he had not seen the suit.

QUICK TAKES

Oliver Platt will team with Tom Conti, Bebe Neuwirth, Lili Taylor and Hope Davis in the new Dick Wolf newsroom drama “Deadline,” premiering this fall on NBC. The series, which begins principal photography today, will be filmed in New York. . . . Jodie Foster will direct Russell Crowe and Claire Danes in “Flora Plum,” a Depression-era drama scheduled to begin filming in central Florida in September. . . . Fox is bringing back the “X-Men” animated series Mondays through Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. beginning July 17, after the release of the film version of “X-Men” next Friday. . . . The Aug. 5 Rolling Rock Town Fair, featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Moby, Filter, Fuel, Our Lady Peace and Marcy Playground, will be available as a live pay-per-view event for $19.95.