Morning Report - News from Nov. 22, 2001

Mellon to Aid Arts, Parks in New York City

The economy is foundering. Contributions and admissions are down after the terrorist attacks. But there is some good news for arts organizations, which are experiencing their rockiest stretch in decades.

The Manhattan-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is creating a $50-million fund to assist New York City cultural and performing arts groups affected by the events of Sept. 11. A portion of the money will also be used to support public parks.

The Mellon Foundation, with assets of about $4 billion, has traditionally focused on higher education. But the arts have always been part of the mix, T. Dennis Sullivan, the foundation’s financial vice president, told The Times.

“When such a vast impact has been made on the entire fabric of a city, we thought we’d work in an area in which we have some experience,” he said Wednesday. “And, while we’ve never been supporters of public parks, we wanted to find something representative of the city--in a larger sense. Parks played an important role in the aftermath of the attack, serving as gathering places.”

Prosecution Rests

in Price-Fixing Trial

The former chief executive of Sotheby’s auction house completed the prosecution’s case Wednesday at the federal court trial of her former boss, A. Alfred Taubman, by denying that she was implicating him in a price-fixing plot with rival Christie’s merely to get a good deal for herself.

Diana D. Brooks testified in the Manhattan courtroom that her own plea bargain with prosecutors almost broke down last year because she refused to implicate Taubman in an earlier conspiracy, that one to raise the fees charged buyers at auctions. That allegation “wasn’t true,” Brooks said, explaining why she would not plead guilty to such a count herself or finger Taubman for it. Brooks did eventually plead guilty to conspiring with Christie’s to raise the fees both auction houses charged sellers, starting in 1995--the same charge the 76-year-old Taubman now faces.

The prosecution rested after Brooks’ testimony.

‘Fat Girl’ No Go, Say Canadian Censors

Censors in Toronto have banned Catherine Breillat’s “Fat Girl,” a film about the sexual awakening of two adolescent sisters, because it includes nudity of underage girls.

An appeals panel voted 3-2 to uphold the ban previously imposed by the Ontario review board. Cowboy Pictures and Lions Gate, the production companies, must now decide whether to remove the scenes in question or take the case to court.

Under the provincial Theaters Act, the review board can reject a film if it shows sex-related nudity involving someone who is underage or appears to be underage. “The feeling was, [the nudity] probably wasn’t necessary to get the point across,” review board Chairman Robert Warren said of the “Fat Girl” decision.

Though Warren said the move was an effort to reflect community standards, he acknowledged that it was unusual. The film has been approved in Quebec and the United Kingdom and shown unrated in the U.S.

There was no immediate comment from Cowboy Pictures. But Noah Cowan, the company’s co-president, has said previously that he believes the film contains material no more sexually explicit than films like “Kids” and “American Beauty,” movies cleared by the board.

Elaine Dutka