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

TELEVISION

Judge Rejects Fox Suit Over Zahn’s Defection

A New York judge has dismissed Fox News’ lawsuit against the agency representing news anchor Paula Zahn, ruling that it had not interfered in her contract before she jumped to CNN in September.

Though Zahn had been signed with Fox through February 2002, State Justice Ira Gammerman maintained she was “free to negotiate with rival networks at any time, so long as she gave Fox the opportunity to decide whether or not to match any offers obtained.”

Zahn notified Fox, he said. But instead of matching the CNN offer, the network terminated Zahn’s employment after learning that her agent had been negotiating with its competitor.

“Fox could have sought a ‘first negotiation’ clause which would have prevented Zahn from even discussing with rival networks her possible employment after Feb. 28, 2002, but never did so,” the judge ruled Monday. As a result, the agency, N.S. Bienstock, “cannot be said to have induced Zahn to breach the contract.”

Fox said it would appeal the ruling.

TV Academy Picks Six New Hall of Famers

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has chosen six new small-screen heavyweights for induction into its Hall of Fame.

Three veterans of “The Carol Burnett Show” made the list: performers Harvey Korman and Tim Conway, and costume designer Bob Mackie.

Also chosen were Jean Stapleton, who played Edith Bunker on “All in the Family”; John Frankenheimer, who directed more than 150 live programs during in the 1950s, and producer Bud Yorkin, who teamed with Norman Lear on “All in the Family,” “Maude,” “Good Times” and “Sanford and Son.”

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POP/ROCK

Another Singer Quits Rage Against Machine

Rage Against the Machine has broken down again. Singer Chris Cornell has parted ways with the celebrated Los Angeles rock band before ever performing in public with the group, according to his manager.

The surprising news comes just 10 months after Cornell, the former frontman of Soundgarden, stepped into the Rage ranks to replace departed vocalist Zack de la Rocha and just three months before the reconstituted Rage was to debut on stage on the Ozzfest tour.

That tour, which includes an Aug. 31 stop at Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion, will now go on without any Rage incarnation, according to Cornell manager Jim Guerinot.

The fleeting Cornell-era of Rage apparently will exist only on CD. While Guerinot declined Tuesday to detail the split, he did say plans are still in place for a spring release of the Rage album that features the truncated labors of Cornell, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk.

Original singer De la Rocha, meanwhile, continues working on a solo project that has no release date set.

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THEATER

Revived Broadway Returns Part of Bailout

In the wake of an unexpectedly fast recovery, the League of American Theatres and Producers gave back $1 million of a $2.5-million bailout from the city of New York on Monday--funding it received after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The stipend had been used to purchase tickets for the Twin Towers Fund and programs promoting tourism to 11 Broadway shows facing a bleak winter. Many of those productions are now enjoying profitable weeks, triggering the payback.

According to Newsday, the $1 million will go to needy arts organizations such as the Center for Arts Education, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the American Music Center and the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York.

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MOVIES

More Films Are Marked for Preservation

Harold Lloyd’s 1918 short “The Tip” and clandestinely shot footage of Jewish refugees aboard the ship Exodus in 1947 are among the 39 films to be preserved through grants announced Tuesday by the National Film Preservation Foundation.

The federally funded prizes are intended to help archives nationwide save American “orphan films” not preserved by commercial interests.

Other “culturally significant” movies slotted for preservation include William S. Hart’s first western feature, “The Bargain” (1914), shot in the Grand Canyon; “Bermuda to Baltimore” (1937), celebrating the inaugural flight of Pan Am’s Bermuda Clipper; a 1932 industrial short explaining how to sell Palm Beach suits; home movies by the Ansel Adams family in New Mexico in 1929; and “White Water and Black Magic,” (1938-39), which documents an Amazon expedition.

“Films are the living record of our country’s history--the day-to-day lives of ordinary people recorded in a fashion not possible before the 20th century,” said the Writers Guild of America’s Richard Wesley, who served on the panel.

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QUICK TAKES

Billy Bob Thornton will be performing with his band at the El Rey Theatre on May 17 in support of his album “Private Radio”--the first performance in a two-week, eight-city tour of the U.S. Tickets go on sale April 13.... The London Times reports that actress Glenda Jackson was hospitalized after seriously injuring her hip and wrist in a fall.... ABC, which has been airing James Bond pictures in chronological order, has canceled the Saturday night offerings because of poor ratings, Variety reports. The leftovers may surface on the network this summer, after which broadcast rights go to Viacom’s TNN, CBS and UPN....MGM plans a brief theatrical re-release of “No Man’s Land,” the Bosnian project that won the Oscar for best foreign-language film, shortly before it comes out on video in April, Variety reports.