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

MOVIES

Tony-Winning Director to Tackle the Big Screen

Susan Stroman, who won a pair of Tonys for choreographing and directing “The Producers” on Broadway, is making her feature film directorial debut with a USA Films version of “Contact,” her Tony Award-winning musical.

The movie, to be adapted by John Weidman and produced by Laurence Mark, is due to begin production later this year in New York, Variety reports. The piece will focus on the third of three segments--the story of a middle-aged ad exec who’s captivated by a woman in a yellow dress. It will incorporate more dialogue than the stage production, which focused almost exclusively on dance. Choreography from all three acts will be woven in.

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Green, Carey Top Movie Stinkers List

And the losers are: Tom Green’s decidedly unfunny “Freddy Got Fingered” and Mariah Carey’s “Glitter.” Or so says the Hastings Bad Cinema Society--a group of movie aficionados--in its nominations for its annual Stinkers awards.

“Freddy” received seven nominations (including worst film, worst actor, worst song, worst on-screen couple, most intrusive musical score and most painfully unfunny comedy). Carey, meanwhile, is considered a front-runner in the worst actress category, which includes Angelina Jolie (“Original Sin”), Tea Leoni (“Jurassic Park III”), Jennifer Lopez (“Angel Eyes” and “The Wedding Planner”) and Penelope Cruz (“Vanilla Sky,” “Blow” and “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”).

Other nominees for worst film of 2001: “Pearl Harbor,” “3000 Miles to Graceland” and “Town & Country.”

The winners will be announced March 22--two days prior to the Academy Awards telecast--on the society’s web site (www.thestinkers.com). For $5, individuals can join the group and fill out a ballot.

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RADIO

L.A. Theatre Works to Air Weekly on KPCC

L.A. Theatre Works’ “The Play’s the Thing,” broadcast on KCRW-FM (89.9) until a bitter separation last March, has found a new Southland home. Beginning March 2, the radio theater series will air on KPCC-FM (89.3) on Saturdays from 8 to 10 p.m.

The pieces, which in the spring season will feature talent such as Hilary Swank, Elliott Gould, Glenne Headly and Richard Schiff, are recorded live at the Skirball Cultural Center for later broadcast. The group was off the air locally until X-FM Satellite Broadway Channel picked it up in November

“This is the first time in our history that we’ll be on public radio 52 weeks a year with our own two-hour time slot--and Garrison Keillor’s ‘Prairie Home Companion’ as lead in,” producing director Susan Loewenberg told The Times Tuesday. “We were just one element in ‘KCRW Playhouse’ and ran only 17 times in the last year. KPCC agreed with us that we’re the perfect match to their all-talk format, since we also deal in the spoken word and add a different texture.”

The plays will adopt a new format, adding behind-the-scenes features and interviews with actors and directors to help provide more context.

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TELEVISION

Powell to Field Questions on MTV

Following in the footsteps of former President Bill Clinton (who fielded questions about what kind of underwear he wore), the U.S. secretary of state plans to have a heart-to-heart discussion with MTV viewers.

Channels in the Middle East, Italy, United Kingdom and Ireland, Brazil and Russia also will run “Be Heard: An MTV Global Discussion With Colin Powell” on Valentine’s Day at 8 p.m.

The show, hosted by John Norris and Gideon Yago, will be taped the morning of Feb. 14 before a studio audience in Washington, D.C. Bilingual VJs in each territory will guide the satellite questions and answers, translating the questions on the spot.

Though MTV is not a typicalvenue for members of the Bush administration, the global reach of the network is a draw in its campaign to send out a message in its war with terrorism, Reuters points out. The forum was arranged independently of Hollywood’s special wartime committee, but it jibes nicely with a pledge by the entertainment business to foster a dialogue between the U.S. and other countries--especially in the Middle East.

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QUICK TAKES

Ron Howard (“A Beautiful Mind”) has been chosen director of the year by the nation’s movie exhibitors, who will award him the prize at their annual ShoWest convention in March.... Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer will make a cameo appearance and perform live in Los Angeles for the first time in his career, joining Senegalese artist Baaba Maal at his Los Angeles concert at UCLA’s Royce Hall Thursday. Zimmer will perform selections from his soundtrack for “Black Hawk Down,” in which Maal was featured.... The Los Angeles Master Chorale will present the U.S. premiere of “Two Songs to Poems of Ann Jaderlund,” the first choral work by Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, on March 16 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Two days later, Grant Gershon will conduct the group in a recording of the piece.... Arthel Neville, co-host of Fox News’ “Celebrity Spotlight,” has been hired as the new host of CNN’s “TalkBack Live,” a town meeting-style show airing weekdays at noon.... Journalist Phil Shuman has joined KCOP-TV Channel 13 to anchor its “Best of Unit 13” telecast on Saturdays and Sundays.... Rosemary Clooney will not perform at Long Beach’s Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center on March 23 because she is recuperating from lung cancer surgery.

Elaine Dutka