MORNING REPORT - News from Jan. 6, 2001

POP/ROCK

Judge For Yourself: Controversial best album Grammy nominee Eminem will give a full-length televised concert for In Demand pay-per-view. The Feb. 17 broadcast, airing just days after the rapper is scheduled for trial on felony assault and weapons charges in Michigan (see story, F1), will be taped before a private audience at Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar on Jan. 20. Eminem--who garnered four Grammy nominations Wednesday despite criticism over his personal life and graphic lyrics that have been decried by women’s groups and gay activists as a call to violence--is expected to perform selections from his nominated album “The Marshall Mathers LP” as well as from 1999’s “The Slim Shady LP.”

RADIO & TV

‘Prairie’ Loses a Home: As a result of its increased focus on classical music, KUSC-FM (91.5) has taken several longtime programs off its schedule, including Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” which will be replaced beginning today with continued classical music programming. The Keillor program can still be heard Saturdays at 6 p.m. on KPCC-FM (89.3). In a letter to listeners, KUSC executive Bob Goldfarb said the removals--which also include the Celtic music show “The Thistle and Shamrock” and Stephen Hill’s “Hearts of Space”--are “not a judgment about the merit of those programs--in fact, several of them are outstanding and we know that some listeners will miss them. But in order to be true to the station’s mission of making classical music and the arts a more important part of more people’s lives, we need to be a reliable source of classical music whenever listeners tune in.”

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Fistell Returns: Syndicated talk radio veteran Ira Fistell, last heard locally on the former KRLA-AM (1110), will return to another of his former outlets, KABC-AM (790), tonight when he guest hosts in the 9-to-midnight period. The slot, which currently does not have a host, will have various guest hosts until a permanent one is selected by the station.

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Tube Notes: KCET’s “Life & Times Tonight” will carry live coverage of Gov. Gray Davis’ State of the State address on Monday from 5 to 6 p.m. . . . UPN has set May 23 for the finale of “Star Trek: Voyager.” . . . “Wolfgang Puck,” a weekly series featuring the celebrity chef, premieres at 9 p.m. Friday on cable’s Food Network. Each installment will follow the chef around his restaurants, to catering jobs and on shopping trips, and will close with the preparation of a dish for a studio audience. . . . All five ‘N Sync members will guest for the full hour on CNN’s “Larry King Live” Tuesday. . . . Nickelodeon’s “Rugrats” kicks off its 10th season on Jan. 15 at 8 p.m., preceded by a six-hour marathon of previous “Rugrats” episodes. New character Kimi, from the “Rugrats in Paris” movie, joins the rest of the diapered tots this season.

LEGAL FILE

Manson T-shirt Exonerated: A woman who strolled a town festival in a Marilyn Manson T-shirt, then was convicted of harassment because of its nasty language, won a reversal Friday from the Kentucky Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously that the law defines harassment as a course of conduct intended to alarm or seriously annoy others, and that “wearing a T-shirt is not a course of conduct.” Venus Starlett Dust Morgan had been arrested in 1998 at an annual spring festival in Benton, Ky.

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Seinfeld vs. Costanza: Jerry Seinfeld and his former television show producers have won an appeals court ruling that says a lawsuit over the George Costanza character should be dismissed. The unanimous decision by the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that the creators of “Seinfeld” did not violate Michael Costanza’s privacy rights when they created the character. Costanza, 43, of Long Island, said that he and Seinfeld had been friends at Queens College and that the defendants had violated his privacy rights by using his “name, likeness and persona” to create the neurotic and nutty character.

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Love Goes to Court: Courtney Love is suing her boyfriend’s ex-wife, claiming the woman ran over her foot in a Volvo--costing her a movie role--and is “on a mission to destroy her.” The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit claims Lesley Barber is “obsessed” with Love because she blames the singer-actress for the end of her marriage to Jim Barber. The complaint alleges assault, battery, trespassing, infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. It seeks damages in excess of $1.5 million and an injunction against Barber. Barber could not be reached for comment.

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Probation for Renfro: A judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sentenced actor Brad Renfro, 18, to two years probation and ordered him to pay more than $4,000 for repairs on a 45-foot yacht he tried to steal in August. The star of the 1994 film “The Client” agreed to pay the yacht’s owner $4,204.55 for loss of use of the vessel and repairs. He also has to pay the Fort Lauderdale Police Department $141.02 for investigative costs, said Broward County Circuit Judge Ronald Rothschild.

QUICK TAKES

The Academy Award ballots that will be mailed out Tuesday will list 242 films as eligible for nomination as best picture. . . . Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State and George W. Bush supporter who became a pivotal figure in the post-election recounts, will give her first sit-down interview since the Nov. 7 presidential election to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer. It will air during next week’s 10 p.m. news hour “PrimeTime Thursday.” . . . The New York trial of rapper Sean “Puffy” Combs, which was to have begun Monday, was postponed Friday until Jan. 17. He’s charged with gun possession in connection with a shooting at a New York nightclub in 1999.