Lansbury set for knee operation

Angela Lansbury will undergo replacement surgery Thursday on her left knee, but the operation was scheduled prior to a fall she took in front of 18,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl Friday, where she appeared in a concert marking the 75th birthday of composer Stephen Sondheim.

The 79-year-old performer, one of the original stars of Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” and perhaps best known for her long-running TV turn on “Murder, She Wrote,” tripped over a microphone cord while entering the stage for the show’s curtain call and had to be helped to her feet. The fall bruised her wrist as well as her knees, but she took her bows with the rest of the cast and then walked off with them unassisted.

Following Thursday’s surgery in Los Angeles, Lansbury will be hospitalized for five days, but she predicted Tuesday that she will “be able to run around again.”