Morning Report - News from Aug. 2, 2002

THE ARTS

Mehta: Artists Are

Canceling Stops in Israel

Israel is embroiled in turmoil--not only political, but cultural. The world’s great artists, once staples on the scene, are canceling plans to appear in a country on high-security alert.

In the current production of the Richard Strauss opera “Salome,” for instance, eight of the scheduled cast members sent their regrets--a microcosm of what’s happening nationwide.

“Fifty percent or more of the foreign artists have canceled,” Zubin Mehta, music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, told the Washington Post.

Israel was once a regular stop for pop music acts such as Madonna, R.E.M., Santana and Eric Clapton. But it has been more than a year since a superstar put the country on the itinerary. The Jerusalem Film Festival drew 60 foreign actors and directors, down from its usual 200. And the Tel Aviv film festival was canceled this year for fear no stars would come.

While security is the primary reason for staying away, politics also factor in. More than 200 painters, photographers and poets endorsed an Internet petition calling on their peers to “cancel all exhibitions and other events that are scheduled to go on in Israel” because “the art world must speak out against current Israeli war crimes and atrocities.”

Although there is little evidence of an anti-Israel boycott such as the one imposed in South Africa during the apartheid era, a pervasive sense of isolation reigns.

“Israel is not the flavor of the month, that’s for sure,” Mehta said. “The world is turning against it.”

New York Magazine Drops Dance Column

Tobi Tobias, dance writer at New York magazine for the past 22 years, got a call from editor in chief Caroline Miller Tuesday night advising her that her column was being phased out.

It’s not that she’s being replaced by “someone cuter,” the columnist said Thursday. She’s just the latest victim of economics, in which the arts--and dance, in particular--are increasingly seen as expendable.

“New York City is a mecca for dance--and there are so few slots where dance is being covered in a steady and serious way,” Tobias said. “Companies and artists--not just the people who report on them--are trying to find and retain an audience. Dance is seen as the ‘orphan’ art since its appeal is narrower than the others. Still, it needs to have its place.”

Tobias has received a couple of dozen phone calls and nearly 100 e-mails since word got out. But the decision, it seems, is final.

“While we value Tobi’s contribution, I decided not to renew her contract,” Miller said. “But we’re not abandoning dance. At least for the time being, we’ll cover it through listings, features and reviews written by other staff people. In these difficult times, every publication in America has to make painful decisions about how to use limited resources in a way that best serves the readers. And it’s no surprise to anyone that the audience for dance has diminished.”

POP/ROCK

Ozzy’s Wife Sends Him Back on the Road

Heavy metal maestro Ozzy Osbourne has canceled plans to take a three-week break from touring while his wife and manager of 20 years receives treatment for colon cancer.

“After attending his wife Sharon’s first chemotherapy treatment, he nearly passed out and had to be taken to a recovery room,” his publicist said Thursday. “Sharon now realizes that Ozzy is better off on the road, so she’s shipped him back out to finish Ozzfest.”

Osbourne, founding member of Black Sabbath, is headlining the annual road show of hard rock acts. He’ll miss two dates in Ohio before resuming a month-long trek in Clarkston, Mich., on Wednesday.

TELEVISION

Carol Marin to Host

PBS Pilot on Ethics

Veteran news anchor Carol Marin made headlines in 1997 when she resigned from NBC-owned WMAC-TV in Chicago after the station hired Jerry Springer for on-air commentaries--an instance in which principle won out over profit in broadcasting.

After stints as a correspondent on “60 Minutes II” and an anchor for another TV station in Chicago, Marin has found gainful employment again. She’ll be the host of the pilot for a possible prime-time PBS series: “Endgame: Ethics and Values in America,” airing Sept. 18.

The pilot will focus on the question, “Do you turn in someone who’s close to you when you know they’ve done something wrong?” Among the guests: the brother of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.

QUICK TAKES

Following concerts at the Hollywood Bowl last month and Verizon Wireless Amphitheater Sept. 15, The Who will play its smallest Los Angeles venue in decades when it headlines the Greek Theatre on Sept. 17. Tickets go on sale Aug. 11.... Alec Baldwin and Ellen DeGeneres will be the first stars to take over the center square in the revamped “Hollywood Squares,” replacing Whoopi Goldberg.... Jim Carrey will re-team with Tom Shadyac, who directed him in “Liar Liar” and “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.” Carrey will play a disconsolate TV reporter in the comedy “Bruce Almighty.” Jennifer Aniston is the female lead....A. Alfred Taubman, former chairman of Sotheby’s auction house, has begun a one-year prison term in Minnesota for fixing art auction prices.