MORNING REPORT - News from Sept. 23, 2000

TELEVISION

E! & Kathie Lee: Kathie Lee Gifford has signed a deal with E! Entertainment Television to star in the network’s fourth original movie, “Spinning Out of Control,” her first TV project since leaving her 15-year post alongside Regis Philbin on the syndicated “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.” Gifford will portray actress Amanda Berkeley, star of the fictional sitcom “Whaddaya Want, Mom?,” whose reign as America’s television sweetheart is marred by an offstage battle with drugs and alcohol and clashes with studio and network executives. Howie Mandel will portray her beleaguered manager. The movie is slated to be shown in March.

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Home Improvement: “Ron Hazelton’s HouseCalls,” the syndicated home improvement show seen on KABC-TV, is seeking projects in Los Angeles homes to feature on future programs. The show, which will be in L.A. during the week of Oct. 23, will complete the projects at no cost with materials donated by Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, though Hazelton asks the homeowners to work alongside him and learn as projects progress. The program seeks “weekend projects” that are small enough to be completed in one or two days. The deadline to submit L.A.-area project requests is Thursday. Requests may be submitted on the Internet to https://www.ronhazelton.com or by mail to Ron Hazelton Productions, P.M.B. 101, 696 San Ramon Valley Blvd., Danville, CA 94526-4022.

MOVIES

Screenplay Hunting: Beginning Monday, the creators of “Good Will Hunting,” Academy Award-winning writers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, join Miramax Films & TV and HBO in inviting “any American citizen 18 years or older” to submit an original screenplay electronically to the first “Greenlight” competition. The winner, to be announced March 1, will direct the film based on the screenplay, with Affleck, Damon and Chris Moore as executive producers. Miramax will finance the $1-million production, and HBO plans a 13-episode documentary-style TV series on the making of the movie, to begin airing in January 2002. “We know how tough it is to get your foot in the door,” Affleck said. “We want to be able to help an unknown writer make their movie.” Contestants may submit their entries through Oct. 22 per instructions posted on the “Greenlight” Web site, www.projectgreenlight.com.

THE ARTS

Arts Grants: The L.A. County Arts Commission has awarded more than $1.9 million in grants to 146 nonprofit arts groups for fiscal year 2000-2001. Most grants are less than $10,000; the largest grantees are the Palos Verdes Art Center ($30,099), Performing Tree Inc. ($27,573), Santa Monica Museum of Art ($27,495), Cornerstone Theater Company ($24,000) and 18th Street Arts Complex ($19,918). Meanwhile, the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded grants totaling nearly $15.3 million to 177 museums nationwide. The only Los Angeles recipient is the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, which received $112,500.

Tenors’ Christmas Celebration: The first Three Tenors holiday release, “The Three Tenors Christmas,” is due Oct. 31 on Sony Classical. It was recorded live during a concert performance at Vienna’s Konzerthaus by Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. They sing carols from around the world, accompanied by Steven Mercurio conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Gumpoldskrchner Spatzen. The release will be available on CD and video.

QUICK TAKES

Rebecca De Mornay is among the actors cast in the Mark Taper Forum’s next production, Patrick Marber’s “Closer,” Nov. 9 through Dec. 10. . . . Fred Savage joins the cast of the L.A. premiere of A.R. Gurney’s “Ancestral Voices” at Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre in Burbank. . . . Los Angeles Philharmonic managing director Deborah Borda makes her first Los Angeles radio appearance Sunday at 4 p.m. on the Philharmonic’s weekly program, “Words and Music, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” on KMZT-FM (105.1). . . . “Stainboy,” an animated series for the Internet based on a character from filmmaker Tim Burton, debuts on www.shockwave.com Tuesday. The crime-fighter is based on Burton’s illustrated book, “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories.” . . . Cable’s FX has renewed the Howard Stern-produced series “Son of the Beach” for a second season. New episodes are expected to be shown in 2001.