Morning Report - News from June 16, 2001

THE ARTS

Wagner Festival Head Bows Out

The designated head of Germany’s renowned Richard Wagner Festival, named to the post after months of bitter infighting among the composer’s relatives, no longer wants the job, her lawyer said Friday. Attorney Peter Raue said that the opera festival’s board of directors, in naming Eva Wagner-Pasquier to the post last March, had grossly underestimated the “hardheadedness” of the man she was to replace--her estranged father, Wolfgang Wagner. Wagner, 89, “refuses to step down to allow his own daughter to take over the post,” Raue said. Wagner--Richard Wagner’s grandson--warned board members after they announced their decision that he would not step down without a fight. He has led the 125-year-old festival in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth since 1973 and wants his second wife, Gudrun, to succeed him. Singers and musicians have lately been turning their back on the enormously popular Bayreuth, complaining that Wagner is autocratic and offers them only one-year contracts. Wagner-Pasquier’s nomination was meant to end wrangling over the annual gala’s future. She was to have taken over the festival in October 2002.

Monet, Degas Appear at the Getty

Two major Impressionist pictures that were featured in casino mogul and art collector Steve Wynn’s short-lived Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts in Las Vegas have been placed on loan to the J. Paul Getty Museum, for what is expected to be a minimum six-month period. Most of the Bellagio art collection was sold last June when Wynn’s company was acquired by MGM Grand Inc., although Wynn is expected to establish another gallery when he reopens the Desert Inn hotel-casino, which he bought last year. The lender to the Getty is unidentified on museum wall labels, and a Getty spokesperson said the lender’s identity would not be made public. Edgar Degas’ 1877 pastel and gouache “Dancer Taking a Bow” and Claude Monet’s 1905 oil “The Bridge Over the Lily Pond,” are installed in the Getty’s galleries for European pastels and Impressionist paintings, respectively.

TELEVISION: NPR, PBS to Collaborate National Public Radio has joined the previously announced PBS project “Public Square,” a 90-minute television interview program that touches on current events, the economy, science and popular culture. The two public broadcasting systems, after years of little to do with each another, have only recently begun working together on projects. NPR talent will contribute to the new show, which PBS President Pat Mitchell described as an attempt to bring a Sunday newspaper to the air. Mitchell also announced at the PBS annual meeting in Philadelphia that PBS is establishing a new programming production fund of $20 million over the next five years. The fund, which is being created with Carlton International Media in Britain, will be open to all stations and producers.

MTV to Sponsor Scholarship

MTV says it will award five $50,000 scholarships to students who demonstrate an interest in civil rights. The winners, who will be chosen by rap star Method Man, members of Destiny’s Child, the Dave Matthews Band, actress Mena Suvari and former boxer Muhammad Ali, will be announced Oct. 24. Each artist will choose a student from his or her hometown, with one national contender chosen by Ali. Suvari will choose a student locally. Applications for the Fight for Your Rights Leadership Scholarships are being accepted until Sept. 15 and can be obtained at https://www.FightforYourRights.MTV.com.

PEOPLE: Contact With Stars Leads to Court

A pizza deliveryman who sent hundreds of letters, e-mails and packages to Gwyneth Paltrow was ordered to remain in a mental institution for several more months after his lawyer said he needs more treatment. Dante Michael Soiu, 51, has been confined to the Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino since he was convicted Dec. 14 of one count of stalking. Superior Court Judge Robert P. O’Neill ordered him kept at the mental institution pending a Dec. 13 report on his progress. Elsewhere, a convicted stalker accused of again threatening entertainer Jerry Lewis is scheduled to go on trial Monday in Las Vegas. Gary Randolph Benson, 57, of Sheridan, Wyo., faces an additional one to five years in prison if convicted of violating a court order that directed him to stay away from Lewis, prosecutor Abbi Silver said. Benson allegedly sent Lewis a letter reading: “Dear Jerry. Your Dead. Your friend, Gary Benson.” Benson had been freed from prison eight months before the letter incident, after serving a previous six-year sentence for stalking Lewis. He has seven prior felony convictions, including aggravated stalking in 1995.

QUICK TAKES

KCAL-TV Channel 9 News Director Dennis Herzig is leaving the station after four years. “I’ve had a great run but it’s time to move on,” said Herzig, who is expected to depart the station next week. A replacement has not been determined. . . . Former Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Andre Rison told Atlanta radio station WHTA-FM that he’ll be married next month to singer Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes of TLC, who torched his $1.3-million mansion in 1994, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. . . . Beginning Sunday, HBO is changing the order of its original series block. “Sex & the City” will continue at 9 p.m. but now will be followed by “Six Feet Under” at 9:30 p.m, with “Arli$$” moving to 10:30 p.m. . . . Sandra Bernhard will host a week of late-night talk shows titled “The Sandra Bernhard Experience,” premiering on A&E; in the fall. The show is viewed as an extension of Bernhard’s various one-woman shows, with guests joining her nightly. . . . “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” released in stores June 5, has become the fastest-selling DVD ever for Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. . . . The Rhythm and Blues Foundation will honor Al Green with its lifetime achievement award during the group’s Pioneer Awards held in New York this October. . . . Noted video artist Bill Viola and installation artist Kim Yasuda will present a free art talk on June 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Japanese American National Museum.