POP/ROCKEstefans Get Restraining Order Against ActorGloria Estefan...

POP/ROCK

Estefans Get Restraining Order Against Actor

Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio Estefan Jr., were granted a temporary restraining order against an actor and aspiring singer who has accused Emilio Estefan of making sexual advances and threatening him.

Judge Deborah White-Labora granted the order for the singer and her music mogul husband against Juan Carlos Diaz, who has requested a similar order against Emilio Estefan.

Diaz was denied the order Jan. 15, but the judge set a Jan. 28 hearing on Diaz’s petition. Diaz, who was in the 2000 film “Escape From Cuba,” alleges that Estefan touched him inappropriately when they worked out at a gym and asked him for sexual favors over two years. The couple’s lawyer has called the allegations unfounded.

The Estefans have described Diaz as an unwanted trespasser who has harassed them at their home and the gym. Police records show Diaz has twice been issued a trespassing warning, once at the Estefans’ Miami mansion and once at the gym.

Rapper Jailed on Murder Allegation

Rapper C-Murder, younger brother of music artist Master P, has been arrested in the shooting death of a 16-year-old at a nightclub in Harvey, La., authorities said.

Police accused Corey Miller, 30, of fatally shooting Steve Thomas following an argument Jan. 12. As many as 300 people were inside the Platinum Club at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutors will decide what charges should be filed against Miller, who was out on bail on an attempted murder charge in Baton Rouge when the Harvey incident occurred.

Miller is a best-selling artist on Master P’s No Limit Records.

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THE ARTS

NYC Arts Institutions Forced to Wait in Line

New York’s cultural institutions, bracing for belt-tightening under new Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, may have to delay or curtail some projects because of the recession and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Bolstered by a booming economy, ex-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had allocated $484.7 million to the arts--more than any other New York City mayor in recent memory.

Those with the most to lose are those with the largest capital commitment from the city through 2005, the New York Times reports. They include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has been promised $26.2 million to nearly double its exhibition space; the New York Botanical Garden, which is expecting a $31.3-million face-lift; the Museum of Modern Art, which is waiting for $30 million to increase space and build temporary quarters in Long Island City during the renovation; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which had been told it was getting $24 million for a new downtown site.

Norma P. Munn, chairwoman of the New York City Arts Coalition, an advocacy group, predicts that practical concerns having to do with the city’s survival will take precedence when the mayor announces a preliminary budget Feb. 14.

“Since no one wants to go back to the days when they didn’t paint bridges, cultural projects will be at the bottom of the list,” she said. “And when they get to the bottom of the list, there will be nothing left.”

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RADIO

Limbaugh Shares Good News With Listeners

For the first time since receiving a cochlear transplant to correct his hearing loss, talk show host Rush Limbaugh discussed his condition with listeners this week, saying that he was able to hear the show for the first time in three or four months.

And the sound quality? Slightly better than what you get when you record someone on a micro-cassette recorder, he said.

“It’s a little bit better than that, but there’s a light fuzziness,” USA Today quoted him as saying. “But as far as voices sounding as I remember them, they do. As far as tonal quality, everything is normal.”

Limbaugh, 51, had been deaf in both ears because of autoimmune inner ear disease. The tiny electrodes, inserted in an operation a few weeks ago, were activated this week.

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MOVIES

Pan African Arts Festival Includes La Salle Debut

The 10th annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival will open Feb. 6 at Loews Cineplex in Century City with the world premiere of “Crazy as Hell,” former “ER” star Eriq La Salle’s directorial debut.

The 13-day event, dedicated to independent black films from Africa and the African diaspora, will screen 154 movies from more than 30 countries. It will also present the Spoken Word Fest, three evenings of poetry, performance art and music; a free Saturday morning Children’s Fest, featuring storytelling and films; and Student Fest, for more than 1,000 young people and their teachers.

A lifetime achievement award will be given to writer Amiri Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones, with a screening of “Dutchman,” based on his play. Except for the opening gala, the festival will take place at Loews Magic Johnson Theaters in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

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QUICK TAKES

The London Film Festival will give its Satyajit Ray award to “In the Bedroom” director Todd Field on Thursday at the National Film Theatre.... George Harrison’s hit single “My Sweet Lord” has returned to the top of the British pop charts 31 years after its first release and nearly two months after the ex-Beatle’s death.... Yolanda Adams and Los Lobos will perform at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s centennial celebration, promoting Green L.A., a series of environmental programs designed to upgrade the city. The event will be held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Feb. 10.... USA Domestic Television has given a go-ahead to a second season of the syndicated “Crossing Over With John Edward.” ... Paul Newman is returning to the stage this summer, playing the stage manager in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” at the Westport (Conn.) Country Playhouse, a venue run by his wife, Joanne Woodward.... With a box-office take of more than $20.8 million, “Amelie” has become the highest-grossing French-language film released in North America, surpassing 1979’s “La Cage aux Folles” with $20.4 million.... Miles Copeland, who for years managed the careers of Sting and the Police, will host a two-hour current affairs-oriented radio show, “Miles Copeland: Reading Between the Lines,” debuting Feb. 12 on KRLA-AM (870) at midnight.... Chuck Berry and Little Richard, two of the first 10 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, will perform on NBC’s “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” this evening before their Saturday show at the Universal Amphitheatre.... Gregory Hines makes his full-length TV film directorial debut with “The Red Sneakers,” to air on Showtime on Feb. 10.

Elaine Dutka