MORNING REPORT - News from June 9, 2000

THE ARTS

Some Like It Hot: An auction of 20th century art including 24 artworks from film director Billy Wilder’s collection brought in a total of $4.6 million Wednesday night at Christie’s in Beverly Hills. The Wilder property, which was expected to bring between $821,000 and $1.1 million, racked up $1.7 million, including the buyer’s premium. Wilder’s 1912 drawing of two nude women by Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele, valued at $100,000 to $150,000, was sold for $369,000, the evening’s top price. Next came “Honk,” a 1962 painting by Ed Ruscha, consigned by an anonymous collector. Bearing a presale estimate of $35,000 to $45,000, it brought $248,000, a record price for a work on paper by the Los Angeles-based artist. Prints from Wilder’s collection will be offered at Christie’s Tuesday night.

THE ARTS

Civic Boosters: Americans for the Arts, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, is gathering arts and community leaders at the Regal Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles Saturday through Tuesday to discuss the state of the arts at the turn of the millennium. Topics include new technologies, including the Internet, that are expanding the field of multidisciplinary art forms, and brainstorming about collaboration between nonprofit arts groups and the for-profit arenas of television, film and music. Bill Ivey, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, gives a keynote address Sunday. On-site registration: one day, $150; full convention, $525. Information: (202) 371-2830. . . . Also intent on boosting the arts are President Clinton and rocker Billy Joel, who are scheduled to talk about the importance of arts education when they appear on NBC’s “Today” show next Friday. Their appearance is part of the second “VH1 Save the Music Today!” campaign to improve and restore music programs in U.S. schools.

TELEVISION

They’re Watching: A coalition of minority advocacy groups has praised the four major networks for including African Americans in leading roles on the new fall prime-time schedule, but criticized them for largely excluding other minorities from the casts of new dramas and comedies. The Coalition for Diversity on Television, which includes the NAACP, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition and American Indians in Film and Television, said that Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans had been mostly left out of new shows on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. Leaders for the coalition added that they would be monitoring the coming season to determine whether the networks would carry through on their previous promises to increase diversity in front of and behind the camera. . . . Meanwhile, a USC study authorized by the Screen Actors Guild concluded that African Americans in prime time are “ghetto-ized” by show type and weeknight, with sitcoms and Monday and Friday night shows accounting for the majority of black TV roles. The study also revealed that shows depicting blacks are disproportionately aired on the WB and UPN.

POP/ROCK

Music With a Message: The Boss has taken a shot at New York’s finest on the eve of his visit to their city. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, playing in Atlanta on Sunday, unveiled a new song commenting on the death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant who was killed in a hail of gunfire from New York police in February 1999. The song, “American Skin (41 Shots),” began with Springsteen repeating the line “41 shots,” a reference to the number of bullets fired by officers in the Bronx incident, which set off a firestorm of protest and racism charges. The officers involved were acquitted on murder charges earlier this year. Springsteen and the band will close out their reunion tour by playing 10 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City beginning Monday.

She’s Out: Kicking open the door on her private life, Sinead O’Connor identifies herself as lesbian in a coming interview with Curve magazine. “I’m a lesbian,” the Irish singer told interviewer Diane Anderson-Minshall, “although I haven’t been very open about that, and throughout most of my life I’ve gone out with blokes because I haven’t necessarily been terribly comfortable about being a lesbian. But I actually am a lesbian.” The interview will be published in the issue of the lesbian magazine that reaches newsstands June 27. An excerpt can be read on the Internet at https://www.curvemag.com.

STAGE

‘Belle’ of the Ball: Julie Harris will return as Emily Dickinson in the solo show “The Belle of Amherst,” opening the Laguna Playhouse’s 80th anniversary season, Sept. 9-Oct. 8. The rest of the season: the West Coast premiere of the musical “Enter the Guardsman,” based on Ferenc Molnar’s “The Guardsman,” Nov. 4-Dec. 3; Arthur Miller’s “The Price,” Jan. 6-Feb. 4; a new comedy commissioned from Laguna Beach-based Sherwood Kiraly, “Who’s Hot, Who’s Not,” Feb. 24-March 25; and David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” June 2-July 1, 2001. A fifth play, for a spring slot, will be announced later.

FILM

Fresh ‘Bread’: A screening is scheduled Thursday for Los Angeles janitors whose determination to earn a living wage is chronicled in the Ken Loach film “Bread and Roses.” Loach’s film, which stars Adrien Brody and features actual janitors as supporting players and extras, received its world premiere last month at the Cannes International Film Festival and was quickly acquired by Lions Gate Films Releasing for North American distribution. The screening--the first in the United States--will introduce the film to more than 400 members of the Service Employees International Union, which organized the recent Los Angeles strikes for higher wages. The film will be released this winter.