POP ROCK

Former Beatle Harrison Says He’s Feeling Well

George Harrison lashed out Monday at a British newspaper responsible for a widely circulated report that the former Beatle is near death.

The 58-year-old singer-guitarist, who underwent treatment in recent months for a brain tumor, says he and his wife, Olivia, are “disappointed and disgusted” by the Daily Mail’s story. The newspaper’s story Sunday cited Beatles producer George Martin as a source and quoted him saying his old friend has accepted that “he is going to die soon.” Martin denied granting any interview on the topic.

Harrison’s statement Monday said the report had caused “untold distress” and said the British pop star is “active and feeling very well.”

Possible Holdout in Jackson Reunion

Confusion reigns as to whether the planned reunion of the Jackson Five will, in fact, take place at Michael Jackson’s 30th anniversary concert--planned for Sept. 7 and 10 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“I am sorry Jermaine has chosen not to participate in this event,” David Gest, the producer of the event, said in a statement last Friday. “This is an event for Michael Jackson. It is a salute to a truly great and legendary artist. Jackie, Tito and Marlon, original members of the Jackson Five, will join their brother, Michael, onstage.”

Jermaine Jackson’s manager insisted that his client just wants to be sure that early supporters of the Jackson Five are going to be invited. “There is no split, no division between the brothers,” Danny O’Donovan told the Associated Press. “Michael is doing his anniversary special, and the brothers are all going to do it, and I am hopeful as a manager that they are all going to be there.”

John’s Nods to Russian and His Own Pasts

Elton John put one of his outfits and a piano stool he’d just used in concert on the auction block to help raise funds for monuments in St. Petersburg, Russia. The beige Versace suit with matching shoes and the stool brought $27,000 at the auction after a concert at the 18th century Catherine Palace.

THE ARTS / Study Says Mid-Sized Venues at Greater Risk

Mid-sized arts venues, the major purveyors of culture in middle America, are most at risk of collapse, according to a study release Monday.

Large, well-known urban arts institutions continue to grow by relying on big-budget advertising campaigns and bringing in celebrity artists, it said, while small, grass-roots arts organizations proliferate by offering little or no pay to their performers. But the mid-sized operations are most threatened by the increasing reliance of the American public on TV, CDs and other forms of entertainment.

The 30-year study, conducted by the Rand Corp. and supported by Pew Charitable Trusts, concludes that more emphasis should be placed on encouraging arts participation by a wider audience in a more diverse range of art forms.

“We see evidence of a real shift in what America’s arts consumers want,” said Kevin McCarthy, head of the study. “Because their free time is so fragmented, Americans are pursuing arts activities that allow them to choose what they want to do, when and where they want to do it--a trend that attracts them to home-based entertainment rather than live performances.”

TELEVISION / O’Brien Calls Epithet Offensive, Hurtful

Conan O’Brien apologized over the weekend for a racial epithet--derogatory to people of Chinese descent--that was used by comedian Sarah Silverman on his July 11 late-night show on NBC.

“We have a lot of different voices come on the show, we have a lot of really intelligent, bright people, and I’m very reluctant to edit people,” he told the Television Critics Assn. during its annual summer meeting in Pasadena. “In this case, we clearly should have done that. To those people who got hurt hearing that word, I apologize.”

If he had to do it over again, he said, he’d have the audio turned down. “I understand that the word is offense to people, it hurts people,” he said.

QUICK TAKES

A second show of Eddy Davis and his New Orleans Jazz Band, featuring Woody Allen on clarinet, has been scheduled for Aug. 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave., Culver City, beginning today at 10 a.m. The first show, scheduled for Aug. 6, sold out in five minutes .... The Broadway production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” presented at La Jolla Playhouse last fall, has been postponed from Nov. 15 to next spring, due to the ongoing run of “Annie Get Your Gun” in the same theater that the producers of “Millie” wanted to use .... Game-show host Pat Sajak is taking to the stage as fussy Felix Unger to star opposite an old friend in Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.” His Army buddy, Honolulu newscaster Joe Moore, will play the slovenly Oscar Madison in the play Sept. 27-30 in Honolulu .... Director Robert Ellis Miller will introduce his 1968 film “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. as part of the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s series “The Cinematography of James Wong Howe.” Three of the film’s stars--Sondra Locke, Chuck McCann and Stacy Keach--will attend.