MORNING REPORT - News from Sept. 30, 2000

A New Dr. Laura?: Laura Schlessinger’s television show will

take on a new look beginning Monday, the host told listeners of her radio show. After a weeklong production hiatus, Schlessinger said Thursday that she has “massaged this thing into a form that more fits me. So it’s sort of like--but not really--this radio show with pictures. . . . You’ll see the difference immediately.” The statement lends credibility to reports, previously denied, that Schlessinger and producer Paramount have clashed over the direction of the TV show, which has been critically panned and thus far drawn subpar ratings. Under pressure from gay rights activists, more than 60 sponsors nationwide have pulled out of the program, seen locally on KCBS-TV. One behind-the-scenes change involves the addition of Linda Ellman--a former “Hard Copy” producer--as an advisor on the program.

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Debate Choices: NBC said Friday that it would send its individual stations and affiliates two separate live programming feeds on Tuesday: the presidential debate and a Major League Baseball playoff game, which are slated to begin at 6 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively. That way, the network noted, it will honor “its obligation” to air the live baseball game while leaving the actual decision-making to those “who know their audiences best.” The network also plans to send West Coast affiliates a tape-delayed 9 p.m. debate feed. Cable news outlet MSNBC, meanwhile, will air the debate live. . . . KABC-AM (790) will broadcast the presidential and vice presidential debates live, in their entirety. And for a dose of historical perspective, the station will also air the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debates, with one such debate to follow each Gore-Bush match-up. . . . CNN will air a series of town meetings with undecided voters in battleground states following its broadcasts of each of the presidential debates. The initial edition Tuesday will take place at the University of Tampa in Florida.

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Early Talk Reprised: Cable’s Fox News Channel will revisit 27 years of talk-show pioneer “The David Susskind Show” in a weekly half-hour program premiering tonight at 7. Hosted by Paula Zahn, “That Was TV” will include highlights from Susskind’s interviews with subjects including President Harry Truman, Truman Capote, a masked Mafia hit man, Martin Luther King and Jerry Lewis.

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Web Viewing: The final five minutes of Barbra Streisand’s farewell concert at Madison Square Garden on Thursday has been posted on both AOL and AOL Plus (keyword: Barbra Streisand). The feed is expected to be available for about a month. . . . The Buena Vista Social Club’s first public concert in the group members’ Cuban homeland is also on the Web (posted indefinitely) at https://www.centerseat.com. Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez and Omara Portuondo performed at the Aug. 12 concert.

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Bolstering Kids’ Education: The Blockbuster video chain will give all kindergarten through eighth-graders one free movie rental for report cards earning at least a B average. “We encourage teachers and administrators to use this positive reinforcement as an incentive,” company executive Mike Roemer said. . . . VH1’s Save the Music Foundation and corporate partner AT&T; Broadband presented checks this week totaling $406,000 to the Los Angeles and Compton unified school districts to pay for musical instruments in 12 elementary and middle schools.

ART & ARCHITECTURE

Short List: The Children’s Museum of Los Angeles has selected seven architects to be considered to design the museum’s proposed two new facilities, in downtown Los Angeles and the northeast San Fernando Valley. Chosen from more than 60 applicants are the firms of Angelil/Graham/Pfenninger/Scholl, Chu & Gooding Architects, Hodgetts & Fung Design Associates, Jones Partners: Architecture, Morphosis, Eric Owen Moss Architects and Randall Stout Architects. The campuses--with one to be located in the “Art Park” area next to the Geffen Contemporary Museum and the other in the Hanson Dam Recreational Area--have design and construction budgets between $12 million and $16 million. Architecture L.A., a new organization of arts leaders concerned with the city’s architecture and urban design, will recommend two architects for each campus, with the museum’s board of trustees expected to make the final selections before year’s end.

QUICK TAKES

MTV holds a casting call today from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at L.A.’s House of Blues for its upcoming reality series “Fear.” Producers want 18- to 23-year-olds who are “electric, funny/silly, adorable, crazy, edgy, a riot, serious, a warrior, a beauty queen, opinionated or won’t back down from a dare.” . . . Bruce Willis is the latest star to donate $100,000 to the Screen Actors Guild’s strike relief fund. . . . Oscar-nominated director Spike Jonze (“Being John Malkovich”) has joined the advisory board of distributor AtomFilms in a deal that gives the company rights to Jonze’s short films for two years. Jonze’s four-minute “How They Get There” will debut later this year on the AtomFilms Web site. . . . Colleen Haskell is the first “Survivor” castaway with a big film role: She’ll play Rob Schneider’s love interest in Columbia Pictures’ Adam Sandler-produced comedy, “Animal.” . . . KCOP-TV has hired Geraud Moncure, who was a KNBC fill-in sports anchor, as weekend sports anchor. . . . KTLA-TV, which on Monday begins airing “Suddenly Susan” weeknights at 11:30, will offer a Spanish-language second audio program feed for the program. The station already has a Spanish feed for its 7 and 11 p.m. broadcasts of “Friends.” . . . “Maverick Investing With Doug Fabian,” heard locally on KLSX-FM (97.1), is being syndicated to more than 70 markets by Business Talk Radio. . . . Sunset Boulevard’s Laugh Factory will hold its annual free Jewish High Holiday services, today (11 a.m.-1 p.m.), Oct. 8 (6-8:30 p.m.) and Oct. 9 (11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 6-7 p.m.).