Morning Report - News from June 25, 2002

THE ARTS

Disney Concert Hall: A Hard-Hat Perspective

The Walt Disney Concert Hall, the $274-million edifice designed by Frank Gehry, won’t be open until the fall of 2003. But after 2 1/2 years of construction, the building--situated on a 3.6-acre plot on the corner of 1st Street and Grand Avenue in downtown L.A.--is taking shape, inside and out.

A “hard-hat tour” provides a glimpse into the 293,000-square-foot future home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Fifteen thousand pieces of steel have been reviewed by the design team--most of them custom-made, in light of the irregular angles and curves. If each were laid end to end, they’d extend 41 miles, we’re told.

The building is divided into a series of spaces--an inverted tulip-shaped founder’s room, an open-air children’s amphitheater--that makes for surprising intimacy. The 2,265-seat concert hall, for starters, is much smaller than expected. The last row in the sky-lit venue is the same distance from the orchestra as the back row of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s founder’s circle--considered by some to be the best place to sit, says the Philharmonic’s deputy director of development, Dan Rothblatt.

The last piece of wood paneling is being hoisted onto the ceiling of the hall, scheduled for completion next spring. And the seats, when installed, will be a random sprinkling of bold colors (teal, greens, oranges), constructed by the manufacturer of seats for Ferrari and Mercedes.

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MOVIES

In ‘Minority Report,’ Pot Calling Kettle Black?

One of the themes tackled by “Minority Report,” the new Steven Spielberg sci-fi film, is the bombardment of culture by advertising. But according to Daily Variety, the movie is guilty of that itself.

Ad placement by major brands are said to have knocked off roughly $25 million from the movie’s $102-million budget, a production of Twentieth Century Fox and DreamWorks. More than 15 companies--including American Express, Burger King, USA Today and Ben & Jerry’s--forked out big money to get some screen time.

Toyota paid $5 million to secure a prime placement for a futuristic Lexus that Tom Cruise uses to climb the sides of buildings. And Nokia spent $2 million to design the sci-fi headsets through which most of the characters communicate. Outside observers are debating whether Spielberg is poking fun at Madison Avenue or just trying to make a buck. In 1982, he was the guy who helped introduce the era of product placement by making E.T. a Reese’s Pieces fanatic.

“The creative decisions by Spielberg came first--he wanted pop-culture icons that would exist in the future,” said Jeffrey Godsick, Fox’s executive vice president of publicity and promotion. “It was never a question of economics, just fulfilling his vision.”

Crowe’s Blackmail Claim Dismissed

Two men were cleared Monday of trying to blackmail Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe.

The judge hearing the case in Australia ordered the jury at Coffs Harbor district court to acquit the men, saying prosecutors failed to prove they demanded money from Crowe in return for destroying a video of the star brawling outside a bar.

Philip Cropper and Malcolm Mercer, both 38, had pleaded innocent to charges of trying to extort money from Crowe using the video, which showed the “Gladiator” star fighting with a man and arguing with a woman outside an Australian nightclub in 1999. The pair had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years if convicted.

What Price Oscar? Angela Bassett Asks

Angela Bassett says she turned down a lead role in the movie “Monster’s Ball”--the one that won Halle Berry her Oscar--because she believed an affair the character had was demeaning and stereotypical.

“It’s about character, darling,” she is quoted as saying in the July 1 issue of Newsweek. “I wasn’t going to be a prostitute on film. I couldn’t do that because it’s such a stereotype about black women and sexuality.”

The actress made it clear that she didn’t mean to criticize Berry, who played the troubled waitress who had an affair with her husband’s executioner.

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POP/ROCK

John Responsible for Expensive Tour Tabs

Elton John lost a case Monday that he hoped would revive a negligence claim against his former accountants.

The singer had sued PricewaterhouseCoopers for allegedly failing to advise him that he was paying $10.5 million in touring costs that he said should have been paid by his manager.

Lord Justice Robert Walker, who joined one of the two other justices at the London Court of Appeal in ruling against the singer, concluded that the 1986 contract with the management company John Reid Enterprises did not obligate it to pay for the tours.

At a hearing last year, the High Court dismissed John’s claim of negligence against Andrew Haydon, former managing director of John Reid Enterprises. John did not appeal that verdict, and he had previously reached a settlement of his action against Reid.

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QUICK TAKES

Kim Delaney will re-team with former “NYPD Blue” cast member David Caruso on “CSI: Miami,” Jerry Bruckheimer’s new forensic drama for CBS to air in the fall.... Tony Bennett and k.d. lang, who have saluted Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday on past albums together, are now paying homage to Louis Armstrong. The new album, to be produced by T-Bone Burnett, is due in November, USA Today reports.