POP/ROCK - Oct. 23, 2001

Take Two for Sting’s Tuscany Webcast

Sting is set to play a free show in New York on Thursday to help launch Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. The performance will be seen live over the Internet ( https://www.music.msn.com/sting ) at 10 a.m.

In deference to the World Trade Center attacks, a live Sting Webcast was cut short Sept. 11 after just one song. The concert itself, produced at Sting’s villa in Tuscany, Italy, continued and will be released as an album Nov. 20.

Microsoft says that at the request of the singer, it will donate software to two New York schools closed by the attack. The concert will also be broadcast on A&E; as part of its new “A&E; in Concert” series Nov. 24.

Aaliyah Lives on in Video Afterlife

Aaliyah’s Caribbean “Rock the Boat” video will debut Nov. 9 on BET. The singer was on her way back from shooting the video Aug. 25 when the plane on which she was traveling crashed, killing everyone aboard.

The video promotes the second single from Aaliyah’s recently released third album. According to her label, Virgin Records, MTV plans to pick it up the week after its BET debut.

The video for the next single, “More Than a Woman”--produced before her death--is due early next year. Virgin says it has enough material for another Aaliyah studio album for a possible 2002 release.

TELEVISION

Diversity Boycott on Hold--for Now

As expected, NAACP President and Chief Executive Kweisi Mfume has delayed presenting plans to the organization’s board of directors that could call for a boycott of one of the major television networks--a protest generated by what he called a lack of cultural diversity on television.

According to an NAACP spokesman, Mfume met with the board over the weekend. Although they discussed the issue, no decision was made, in part because of the emotional and practical turmoil the industry has experienced after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Mfume threatened a boycott last August when he outlined what he saw as a disappointing lack of progress among the major television networks--a failure to follow through on initiatives they signed in 1999 to increase representation of minorities on series and in the executive ranks.

MOVIES

Defending Clinton, Targeting the ‘Fringe’

Husband-wife producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (“Designing Women,” “Evening Shade”) have joined forces with filmmaker Adam Friedman on a theatrical documentary defending former President Clinton against those who discredited him during his tumultuous years in office.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, neither Clinton nor former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to appear in the piece.

Thomason and Friedman will direct the $2 million-$3 million project, which marks the first foray into the documentary genre for Regent Entertainment. The film will be based on “The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hilary Clinton,” by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons. Friedman, a friend of Conason, optioned the book a year ago.

Production is scheduled to start in the next few weeks.

“This is not a film about Republicans and Democrats,” Thomason said. “Rather, it’s an insightful story that looks at the fringe elements of our society and their effect on the modern political process.”

Bloodworth-Thomason directed “The Man From Hope,” the 14-minute biographical documentary introducing Clinton at the 1992 Democratic Convention. Longtime friends of the Clintons, she and her husband became a strong White House presence and were criticized for their involvement in the so-called Travelgate scandal.

THE ARTS

Gramophone, Avery Fisher Give Awards

Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli was selected artist of the year by Gramophone and conductor Richard Hickox won both the record of the year and the orchestral awards.

The ceremonies were held Friday at London’s Barbican Hall.

The annual awards, selected by the magazine’s critics, are considered among the most prestigious in classical music.

Hickox received both awards for his original manuscript recording of Vaughn Williams’ “A London Symphony” with the London Symphony Orchestra. Among the other winners: conductor-composer Pierre Boulez, who won the contemporary award for his “Sur incises” and the concerto award for Schoenberg’s piano concerto with Mitsuko Uchida and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Meanwhile, at Lincoln Center in New York Monday night, Japanese-born, New York-raised violinist Midori was given the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, which includes $50,000.

QUICK TAKES

ABC has postponed plans for a fugitive reality series called “The Runner,” produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. “Today’s environment would not be conducive to this type of television event,” said ABC Entertainment Co-Chairman Lloyd Braun.... 20th Century Fox will re-release Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge” in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco on Nov. 21. The DVD is due Dec. 18.... Paul McCartney is airing behind-the-scenes footage from “The Concert for New York City” on his Web site, https://www.paulmccarthttps://ney.com