ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

Pop / Rock

Queen of Soul Files Suit Against Tabloid

Soul singer Aretha Franklin has filed a $50-million lawsuit against American Media Inc., the publisher of the Star tabloid magazine, claiming she was defamed by an article that said she abuses alcohol.

The lawsuit stems from a December 2000 story headlined “Aretha Franklin Drinking Herself into the Grave,” which said that the Queen of Soul had an alcohol problem that caused her to cancel a host of concert appearances, and posed a threat to her career and health.

In papers filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Franklin alleges that the Star fabricated the claim of alcohol abuse and that the piece “impaired her ability to pursue her chosen profession.”

Gerald McKelvey, a spokesman for the Boca Raton, Fla.-based American Media, said company officials hadn’t read the suit and had no comment.

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Television / ’60 Minutes’ Covers King Estate Controversy

The controversy surrounding commercialization of Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers will be tackled by CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday night.

The family of the slain civil-rights leader sought $20 million for the sale of the copyrighted material to the Library of Congress--a fee rejected by the U.S. Congress. It has also charged media outlets and scholars interested in using King’s image or words for broadcast or publication, and sued CBS News and USA Today for failure to pay a licensing fee. (Both cases were settled out of court.)

Julian Bond, NAACP chairman, is critical of the use of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in an Alcatel communications company commercial. “If Martin were alive now, he and I would be meeting with Alcatel right now, saying, ‘How many blacks and women were on your board?’” Bond tells “60 Minutes.” “Martin Luther King must not be used as a huckster for some corporation.”

Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young defends the family. “There’s nothing wrong with selling a commercial product, even for a saint,” he said. King’s estate, Young added, was financially small, and the copyrighted works give his heirs the inheritance they deserve.

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Movies / Little League Coach Loses ‘Hardball’ Suit

A Chicago federal judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit against the movie “Hardball” by a Little League coach who said he and the hard-drinking, ticket-scalping coach in the film were one and the same.

Securities trader Robert Muzikowski had asked for $11 million in damages from Paramount Pictures and a group of co-defendants for the movie inspired by the book “Hardball: A Season in the Projects,” saying he’s a tea-totaler and that it didn’t depict him honestly.

Though Muzikowski was a central figure in the book about an inner-city Little League coach, U.S. District Judge Charles P. Kocoras said Wednesday that the coach in the movie, played by Keanu Reeves, was not necessarily him.

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Radio / ‘Democracy Now! in Exile’ Holds L.A. Benefit

Journalist Amy Goodman will appear with actor Danny Glover at a benefit at a Los Angeles church Saturday night for her beleaguered public radio show, “Democracy Now!,” which has been off the air at KPFK-FM (90.7) and most other Pacifica Radio network stations in a dispute over working conditions.

Goodman has been broadcasting the show--currently called “Democracy Now! in Exile”--from a studio in lower Manhattan, transmitting it over the Internet and satellite.

The event, to be held at the First Baptist Church, 760 S. Westmoreland Ave., between 7:30 and 10 p.m., will include highlights of the show’s “War and Peace Report,” focusing on the post-Sept. 11 crisis.

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Quick Takes

Barbara Walters will interview President and Mrs. Bush and get a personal tour of the White House, currently closed to the public, on Wednesday’s edition of “20/20”.... New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, long known for its annual Christmas tree lighting and baroque Nativity scene, is celebrating Hanukkah for the first time. An elaborate 18th century menorah, a symbol of the Jewish holiday, went on display this week.... John Williams will write the theme music for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, with other music to be composed by Robbie Robertson, Michael Kamen, Mark Watters and David Foster.... “By Jeeves” will close on Dec. 30 after 72 performances--the shortest Broadway run ever for an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The following week, “Thou Shalt Not,” the Harry Connick Jr.-Susan Stroman musical, will end its limited run and the long-running revival of “The Rocky Horror Show” will also close.... MSNBC’s “A Region in Conflict,” a 2-month-old program hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, will become a regular feature of the network’s prime-time schedule, airing weeknights at 9.... Rocker Peter Frampton, a native of England living in his wife’s hometown of suburban Cincinnati, intends to become an American citizen in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.... Third Eye Blind has joined the lineup of the three-day Silverlake Silverlining benefit as the headliner of the Dec. 15 Hollywood Palladium concert. A limited number of $75 tickets have been released for that show, and some $150 tickets are now available for the Dec. 14 show at the Paramour Estate headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The event, which also features Elton John and Sting on Dec. 13, benefits the Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic.

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Elaine Dutka