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

MOVIES

New Line Loses Appeal on ‘Goldmember’ Suit

New Line Cinema has to scrap plans to call the third installment of its “Austin Powers” franchise “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”

The Motion Picture Assn. of America has denied the studio’s appeal of an earlier ruling blocking the use of the name--a spoof of the 1964 James Bond picture “Goldfinger.” The decision was made Thursday by six arbitrators from four different studios.

On Jan. 24, the MPAA ruled the title “inadmissible” in response to a complaint from MGM and United Artists, owners of the Bond franchise. Movie trailers, posters and online promotions using the “Goldmember” name must be withdrawn, the MPAA said.

The collision between the studios and the bucktoothed superspy isn’t a first: In 1999, they petititoned the MPAA over the use of “The Spy Who Shagged Me” and, that time, New Line emerged victorious.

The issue, said MGM, is more than self-interest. “It is vital to maintain the integrity of the MPAA title registration procedure by which all major motion picture studios have abided for many years,” Jay Rakow, senior executive vice president and general counsel of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., said in a statement. “MGM will seek monetary penalties pursuant to the terms of the MPAA award and will take all other appropriate action to continue to protect its intellectual property and its filmmakers.”

New Line said that the “Austin Powers” film, featuring Mike Myers in four roles, is still on track for a July 26 release. A new title has not yet been selected.

“Even though New Line is disappointed by the MPAA’s decision, we will abide by it,” the company said in a statement. “We remain committed to our filmmaker’s vision and are moving forward.”

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Christopher Guest Set to Skewer Folk Music

Actor-writer-director Christopher Guest is hooking up with Spinal Tap buddies Harry Shearer and Michael McKean on a mockumentary skewering ‘60s folk music.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Guest will direct the project for Castle Rock Entertainment, which produced his last two films. Longtime collaborator Eugene Levy and Guest are writing the script.

The story, Guest says, will be a musical revolving around folk artists well past their prime who are invited out of obscurity for one last shot at stardom.

Most of the cast of Guest’s “Waiting for Guffman,” which skewered middle-American community theater, and “Best in Show,” which targeted canine competitions, will be returning in the new project, with tunes to be written by Guest, Shearer, McKean and Levy.

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THEATER

New Ventura Musical Has Broadway Hopes

The script of a musical based on the life of maverick Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura is progressing, with songs titled “Do You Like the Rolling Stones?” “The Heart Is a Muscle,” “Hooyah!” and “You’re Different.” The piece is titled “The Body Ventura.”

Composer-lyricist Stephen Dolginoff told Playbill On-Line that he is awaiting Ventura’s approval for a revised Act 2. When Ventura signs off, producer Pierre Cossette plans to move forward with plans to take it to Broadway.

In a January interview, Ventura told the Associated Press that he sought a rougher edge to the musical. “I wanted more gutty and gritty, and we’re starting to move that way. Instead of being milquetoast and G-rated, we’re starting to go for R-rated,” he said. “Let’s make it who I really am.”

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Paltrow Making London Debut in ‘Proof’

Gwyneth Paltrow plans to make her British theater debut in June at London’s Donmar Warehouse, with her “Shakespeare in Love” director, John Madden, in charge of “Proof.”

Paltrow, who won a best actress Oscar for her “Shakespeare in Love” work, will be playing the same part that won Mary-Louise Parker a Tony Award for best actress, that of a talented young woman who has inherited her father’s mathematical genius--and may also have inherited his mental instability.

Madden shot down talk that his pairing with Paltrow is a dry run for a film of the play. “We’re doing this as a piece of theater,” he said Friday. “That’s what the focus is and what the raison d’etre is.”

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TELEVISION

New Image for Fox’s Van Susteren

Those tuning in to see Greta Van Susteren in her new Fox News Channel show Monday night may do a double-take. The 47-year-old ex-host of CNN’s “The Point” looks dramatically different after a face lift on Jan. 14, the New York Daily News reports.

Her new image began popping up on Fox this week in promos for “On the Record,” the new 7 p.m. nightly newscast. According to USA Today, Van Susteren undertook the procedure to remove the bags under her eyes in anticipation of her 30th high school reunion. The work, she said, was done in her doctor’s office and was nothing more than an eye lift. If the swelling doesn’t go down by Monday, she’ll make a reference to it on the telecast.

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MUSIC

Vienna Buys Back Strauss Memorabilia

The Viennese government is paying approximately $4.38 million to the heirs of composer Johann Strauss Jr. for musical scores and other memorabilia--items that had originally been returned to the family because they’d been confiscated by the Nazis.

In 1939, Hitler’s Gestapo appropriated the collection of original scores, first printings, correspondence, paintings of the Strauss dynasty and other memorabilia.

After World War II, authorities granted the heirs permission to take part of the 1,400-piece collection out of the country if they ceded the rest to Vienna.

Only in 1999, as part of general restitution laws to victims of the Holocaust, were those articles also returned to the heirs.

Speaking on behalf of the heirs, Marianne Cochran Crespo de la Serna told the Austria Press Agency: “We always said that Strauss belongs to Vienna.”

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QUICK TAKES

Naomi Watts (“Mulholland Drive”) is the 2002 ShoWest Female Star of Tomorrow--an award she’ll receive on March 7, the final day of the exhibitors’ convention.... “Movin’ Out,” a new musical based on Billy Joel songs and conceived and directed by choreographer Twyla Tharp, will open at the Shubert Theatre in Chicago July 19 and on Broadway Oct. 24 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.... “I Am Sam” producers Jessie Nelson, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Richard Solomon will receive the first Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America for examining provocative social issues at the group’s ceremony on March 3. The honor is named for the filmmaker who died last year and was known for tackling issues such as racism and war crimes.... Composer John Williams will conduct his score to Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” at the film’s 20th anniversary premiere at the Shrine Auditorium on March 16.... London’s Daily Telegraph reports that playwright Harold Pinter is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer of the esophagus.... Rocker Patti Smith and author Susan Sontag are collaborating on a two-disc album looking back at Smith’s career. According to E! Online News, the project, due out March 19, will include liner notes by Sontag and previously unreleased material by the singer.... Former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch, who oversaw NBC for years, has signed on to be a pro bono contributor to CNBC’s morning market show “Squawk Box,” starting Thursday.... Kid606 has canceled his show at the Echo tonight.

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Elaine Dutka