Brooks Gives Chase, Fab Four Winning Race

Garth Brooks celebrates his 39th birthday on Wednesday, but if you want to send a gift, you should not make it a copy of “1,” the new hits collection from the Beatles. Not that Brooks isn’t a Fab Four fan, but every copy sold of “1” means Brooks will have to settle in a bit longer as “2” on one of the biggest tallies in the music industry: the all-time U.S. album sales list. Brooks had been steadily closing in on the Beatles, the longtime champs, but the surprisingly robust sales of “1” (5.9 million copies sold since its November release) and a quiet change in the way album sales are tracked have left the country singer way behind in the retail horse race. In recent years, the Recording Assn. of America, which monitors album shipments and certifies gold and platinum sales, said Brooks had closed to within 10 million copies. But then late last year, without fanfare, the association changed its policy on counting multi-disc collections as just one sale. Under the new system, the purchase of a double-disc such as, say, the Beatles’ “White Album,” counts as two albums sold. That change and the flood of “1” to stores gave the Beatles a huge surge, and they now hold a whopping 158 million to 101 million lead over Brooks. More than that, the country king is now looking over his shoulder at Led Zeppelin, which jumped to 100 million in the new system. Will any of this shake up the famously competitive Brooks? “His goal really wasn’t to be No. 1, it was always to reach 100 million in sales. That’s what he always talked about,” says Pat Quigley, former president of Brooks’ label, Capitol Nashville. “I asked him why once and he said, ‘Well, you play golf. Don’t you keep score?’ ” Is Brooks score-sensitive enough to rethink his supposed semiretirement? And what about rumors that he will announce a new album project in the next few months? “The truth is, Garth does have to do something big because the Beatles are way ahead of him now,” Quigley says. “And he probably will.”

Dancer to Be Honored for Community Work

Lula Washington, founder of the Lula Washington Dance Theatre, will take a break from performing--and an ongoing legal battle--on Saturday to accept an award from Prototypes, a Culver City-based group helping women with substance abuse, HIV, homelessness and domestic violence. The Black History Month gala, to be held at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, is honoring the dancer-choregorapher for her children’s program, “I Do Dance, Not Drugs,” part of her 21-year-old troupe’s program of community outreach. Meanwhile, her property-rights lawsuit seeking unspecified damages from the city of Los Angeles and the Community Redevelopment Agency is wending its way through court. The complaint stems from Washington’s attempt to rebuild her studio and headquarters, which was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake in 1994. She claims that the redevelopment agency approved plans for her new dance center at Adams Boulevard and Sycamore Avenue but refused to issue a permit because a shopping mall developer wanted the property. She’s asking to be reimbursed for her land, grant money lost and damages incurred while waiting for city action--as well as help in finding a new home. In January, Washington scored a minor victory when a Superior Court judge denied the city’s claim that it was immune from such prosecution. This week, Washington will submit a more detailed account of her allegations, answer the city’s charge that she could seek relief without a lawsuit and await the next round.

Oldman Hides in End Credits of ‘Hannibal’

Last year, long before their political thriller “The Contender” reached theaters, executives at DreamWorks showed the press footage from the film and asked the reporters present if they could spot actor Gary Oldman. With his wispy, balding hair and horned-rimmed glasses, Oldman was difficult to identify as the chairman of a congressional committee probing a vice presidential nominee’s background. Now, Oldman is back in a role that is even more unrecognizable on the screen, playing the hideously disfigured Mason Verger in director Ridley Scott’s horror thriller, “Hannibal,” which premieres Friday. Even though Oldman’s character plays a prominent role in the MGM/Universal film, the actor’s name does not appear in the opening credits. It is listed in the end credits on screen; however, an MGM spokeswoman noted that because of an agreement with the actor, Oldman’s name was omitted from the film’s printed publicity materials, including a press kit that includes the end credits. Based on the best-selling novel by Thomas Harris, “Hannibal” is the long-awaited sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning Jonathan Demme thriller, “The Silence of the Lambs.” In the new film, Anthony Hopkins reprises his role as the brilliant archvillain/cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter; Julianne Moore replaces Jodie Foster in the role of FBI Agent Clarice Starling. In “Hannibal,” Lecter has escaped from a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane, where he had been interviewed by Starling, and is now on the loose in Europe. Starling is still haunted by his voice in her dreams. Verger also remembers Lecter. As Lecter’s sixth victim, Verger managed to survive an attack and now realizes that to draw the doctor into the open, he must use someone Lecter cannot resist as bait: Starling. The studios say that Oldman’s decision to forgo a credit was “contractual.” They also note that during the shoot, they were careful not to release photographs or behind-the-scenes footage of Verger to the media. Oldman is not the first actor to remove his name from the credits. Bill Murray, for instance, agreed to omit his name from the opening credits of “Tootsie” to prevent audiences from confusing the film with Murray comedies like “Meatballs” and “Caddyshack.”

--Compiled by Times Staff Writers