MORNING REPORT - News from Sept. 16, 2000

THE ARTS

Not So Fast: Composer John Williams (“Star Wars,” “Schindler’s List”) has expressed surprise at an announcement that he is creating a new work for the Los Angeles Opera. According to the Boston Globe, Williams said there was no firm commitment on either side. “They have suggested a project, but they are still negotiating for the rights,” he said. “Whether they acquire the rights or not, I wouldn’t be available to embark on such a project for at least a couple of years.” Contacted Friday, a spokeswoman for L.A. Opera artistic director Placido Domingo said of Wilson’s reported comments, “It’s true that nothing is definite. Mr. Williams, Mr. Domingo and [new principal conductor] Kent Nagano have said that they’re interested in working together, and we’re in the process of securing the rights.” Meanwhile, a spokesman for L.A. Opera--which issued a press release stating that Williams “has been commissioned to create a new opera for the company, which will be premiered in the 2004-2005 season”--acknowledged Friday that “all the details” of the work in question had not been finalized. However, the opera spokesman said that Domingo had apprised Williams a half-hour before the news conference that he would announce the project “and that was all fine [with Williams].”

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Education Discussion: J. Paul Getty Trust President Emeritus Harold M. Williams, National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences President C. Michael Green and Paramount Pictures President Sherry Lansing are among those taking part Monday in a “California Creativity Forum” about “the eroding role of the arts in K-12 education.” The public forum, organized by the California Arts Council, is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Griffith Park. Additional scheduled participants are CAC Chairman Steven J. Fogel; Sharon Davis, wife of California Gov. Gray Davis; actors Daniel Stern and Valerie Harper; and Sonia Hernandez, the state’s deputy superintendent of public instruction.

TELEVISION

Love Story: Columbia/TriStar is making a TV movie for NBC of the love saga of the U.S. Marine who eloped with the daughter of Bahraini royalty, with a possible spring air date planned, an NBC spokeswoman said. Casting has not yet begun. Meriam Al-Khalifa, 19, a member of the island nation’s royal family, eloped with Marine Lance Cpl. Jason Johnson, 25, when her family objected to their romance. Using phony documents and a disguise, Al-Khalifa flew to Chicago, where she was met by INS agents. She is fighting a deportation order in San Diego, claiming she faces harm if returned to Bahrain because she defied her family. The couple, now married, lives at Camp Pendleton, where Johnson has been busted to private. Numerous entertainment companies had been bidding for film rights to the couple’s story.

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Are Your Kids ‘All That’?: Nickelodeon holds an open casting call today from noon to 4 p.m. (at the Nickelodeon on Sunset Theatre, 6230 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood) for 9-to-14-year-old performers interested in joining the cast of the cable channel’s popular series “All That.” Those hoping to join the show--conceived as a “Saturday Night Live” for kids--must be prepared to perform three characters.

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Tube Notes: KTLA-TV makes several additions to its weekday schedule on Monday, including syndicated runs of “Clueless” (1:30-2 p.m.), “7th Heaven” (5-6 p.m.) and “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” (6-6:30 p.m.). On Oct. 2, meanwhile, the station will begin Monday-Friday runs of “Suddenly Susan” (11:30 p.m.-midnight) and “Street Smarts” (midnight-12:30 a.m.), and on Oct. 7 will begin airing the new science-fiction hour “Gene Rodenberry’s Andromeda,” starring Kevin Sorbo (“Hercules”), on Saturdays at 5 p.m. . . . “Hollywood Squares” gets in the Olympic spirit next week when 12 former Olympic gold medalists take over the game show’s squares. Those occupying squares will include Nadia Comaneci, Bart Conner, Mitch Gaylord, Kerri Strug, Scott Hamilton, Oksana Baiul, Janet Evans, Bruce Jenner, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carl Lewis, Karch Kiraly and Greg Louganis. . . . Cable’s TNT has ordered an additional nine episodes of its first hourlong drama series, “Bull,” which premiered last month, accounting for a total of 22 episodes. The series, about a group of Wall Street bankers and traders, airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. . . . The WB network has picked up its summer comedy “Baby Blues” for a second season, ordering 13 additional episodes for the fall of 2001.

QUICK TAKES

Spike Lee will direct actor Roger Guenveur Smith in a filmed version for cable’s BET of Smith’s solo stage show, “A Huey P. Newton Story,” about the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party co-founder. . . . The “celebrity DJ mix” Web site Myplay.com is heralding director Cameron Crowe’s new film “Almost Famous,” by posting two streaming Internet song mixes by Crowe, one featuring songs from his various movies and the other songs from 1973--the year in which “Almost Famous” is set. Also coming soon to the site is a mix by the real-life Ben Fong-Torres, a former Rolling Stone editor who is portrayed in the movie; by Crowe’s wife, Nancy Wilson of Heart, who was the movie’s music supervisor; and by Stillwater, the fictional band portrayed in the movie by actors including Billy Crudup and Jason Lee. . . . Harrison Ford is the latest actor to donate $100,000 to the Screen Actors Guild Foundation’s Strike Relief Fund in support of the commercial actors’ strike. . . . Production on Columbia Pictures’ live-action big-screen version of “Spider-Man,” starring Tobey Maguire (“The Cider House Rules”), has been pushed back to January, with a release date set for early May, 2002. . . . The summer movie hit “The Perfect Storm” is due on home video/DVD on Nov. 14.