MORNING REPORT - News from July 11, 2001

POP / ROCK

Twelve Make Country Hall of Fame

The Everly Brothers, Sam Phillips, Waylon Jennings and “Whisperin’ ” Bill Anderson are among 12 acts to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this fall. Also to be inducted during a dinner Oct. 4 in Nashville: the Delmore Brothers, Don Gibson, Homer & Jethro, the Jordanaires, Don Law, the Louvin Brothers, Ken Nelson and Webb Pierce. The inductees also will be recognized during the Country Music Assn. Awards, which will be broadcast Nov. 7 on CBS. The CMA, which usually inducts two or three performers a year, is having the one-time mass induction as part of festivities around the opening of a new Hall of Fame building this summer. Phillips, 78, and Anderson, 63, are this year’s regular inductees, while the rest have been finalists at least three times over the years. It will be the largest class ever inducted into the Hall of Fame, said Ed Benson, executive director for the CMA. Jennings has repeatedly attacked the CMA voting process, claiming block voting has marred the integrity of the awards. “Waylon has been critical of the CMA over the years, but that’s not a part of the nomination and election process,” Benson said. “He is an incredible and unique talent, and his going into the Hall of Fame is well deserved.”

TELEVISION

Diversity Issue Still Alive at NAACP

Diversity on television is not on the agenda at this week’s convention of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. Two years ago, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume used the convention as a forum to launch an attack against the four major broadcast networks in reaction to the near-exclusion of minorities in new prime-time shows. The 92nd NAACP convention, currently underway in New Orleans, is dealing with numerous other topics, including a report card on elected officials. But the TV networks aren’t off the hook: Mfume will release an update on the diversity issue next month.

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Sci Fi Channel Orders Miniseries

DreamWorks Television will produce a 20-hour miniseries for the Sci Fi Channel, the cable network said Tuesday. “Taken,” written and produced by Leslie Bohem, will deal with the subject of alien abductions, as told through the experiences of three families. The series is due to begin production in September in Vancouver and is scheduled to premiere late in 2002. It will star Steve Burton, Julie Benz and Joel Gretsch.

MUSIC

Detroit Conductor Hospitalized

Conductor Neeme Jarvi, musical director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, was in stable condition Tuesday after being rushed to a hospital in Tallinn, Estonia, suffering from heat exhaustion while on a visit to his homeland, a spokeswoman for the orchestra said. “We’ve spoken with the family and his agent and he’s fine,” Jill Woodward said in Detroit. She said tests uncovered nothing to indicate Jarvi suffered a stroke, as Estonian media had reported. Jarvi, 64, perhaps Estonia’s best-known cultural figure, has more than 350 records or discs to his name. His recorded works include those by Jean Sibelius of Finland, American jazz great Duke Ellington and fellow Estonians Arvo Part and Veljo Tormis. He emigrated to the United States in 1980, when Estonia was still ruled by the Soviet Union.

PEOPLE

Barrymore, Green Wed, We Think

Do we believe them this time? “Charlie’s Angels” star Drew Barrymore formally wed “Freddy Got Fingered” director-comedian Tom Green in a small outdoor ceremony in Malibu last weekend, Eddie Michaels, her publicist, said Tuesday. The couple has routinely joked about being married on talk shows and during other public appearances in recent months. “Charlie’s Angels” co-stars Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu attended the reception after the Saturday wedding, along with Barrymore’s mother, Jaid. Green’s parents flew in from Ottawa. Barrymore, 26, and Green, 29, were engaged in July 2000. Green said in April that they had eloped in March. It was Green’s first marriage and Barrymore’s second.

QUICK TAKES

Melissa Etheridge gets her handprints enshrined on the Hollywood RockWalk at 7425 Sunset Blvd. next Wednesday at noon. . . . Reruns of the syndicated TV series “Earth: Final Conflict” will begin on the Sci Fi Channel Aug. 6. And reruns of “Star Trek: Next Generation” will commence on TNN in October. . . . “Jurassic Park III” will be shown in a digital format on two screens at Loews Universal City Cinemas when the film opens July 18. . . . Daily Variety reported Tuesday that Carmen Electra has signed a two-year contract to star in 12 productions a week of “Lumiere,” a multimedia show that will premiere at the Aladdin Resort in Las Vegas early next year. . . . WB will add a new children’s series to its Saturday morning lineup on July 21, “Rescue Heroes: Global Response Team,” about a group of characters on call for emergency rescues anywhere on the planet.