MORNING REPORT - News from Sept. 21, 2000

ENTERTAINMENT

Fewer Celeb Chats: When Barbara Walters started negotiating a new contract, she dropped hints that she wanted to cut back her busy schedule, perhaps drastically. Her new five-year ABC News deal, announced Wednesday, does cut back--but barely. Under the new contract, her longest in a while, Walters, 69, will continue to anchor “20/20” on Fridays but will do only two prime-time specials per year, down from four. One will be her annual Academy Awards special, but the other, in a change, won’t be made up of star interviews, though ABC didn’t say what the new format would be. Walters also signed a separate deal to continue her daytime ABC talk show “The View” for five years.

Click and Vote: VH1 has opened up the online voting (at https://www.vh1.com) for its new fan-determined awards show, “My VH1 Music Awards,” airing Nov. 30 from the Shrine Auditorium. Categories range from song of the year and must-have album to best stage spectacle, most entertaining public feud and best legal download. Voting through Oct. 10 will select the nominees, with final voting set for Oct. 20 through the actual awards presentation.

Madonna and the Rock: Madonna talks to US magazine in its issue out Friday about the large diamond ring she’s been wearing from British director-boyfriend Guy Ritchie. “I never liked big rocks on my finger--well, I do now,” the singer says of the ring, which Ritchie gave her the day she brought new baby Rocco home from the hospital. But despite the diamond ring--her first ever--Madonna is still hedging her bets about marriage: “I wouldn’t say it’s an engagement ring--at least not right now. We talk about marriage but we can’t decide whether it’s something that’s necessary.”

THE ARTS

Ovation Honors: The Walt Disney Co. and its chairman, Michael Eisner, who are bringing “The Lion King” to L.A. next month, will receive Theatre L.A.’s Doolittle Award for leadership in theater at this year’s Ovation Awards ceremony, Oct. 30 at the Ahmanson Theatre. Ray Stricklyn, the veteran L.A. actor best known for his “Confessions of a Nightingale” solo, will receive the annual career achievement award.

Atlanta Strike Ends: A yearlong strike by the Atlanta Ballet orchestra has ended just in time for the new season. The 45 musicians approved a three-year contract Monday that for the first time includes management contributions to a pension fund. The ballet, which opens its season Oct. 6 with “Romeo and Juliet,” had planned to hire fill-in musicians from the Czech Republic.

QUICK TAKES

DreamWorks Home Entertainment will release Russell Crowe’s big summer hit, “Gladiator,” on video and DVD on Nov. 21. . . . President Clinton is scheduled to attend Barbara and Marvin Davis’ annual Carousel of Hope benefit on Oct. 28 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Ricky Martin will perform. . . . Thieves cut a 1882 Claude Monet painting, “Pourville Beach,” worth about $1 million, from its frame in the Polish National Museum and replaced it with a forgery, authorities discovered Tuesday. . . . Singers Amy Grant and Vince Gill, who wed last March, are expecting a baby in March.