Quick Takes - June 4, 2010

QUICK TAKES

‘Eat Pray’ now PG-13

All the 13-year-olds who were hoping to see Julia Roberts turn her life around after a divorce can rest easy: “Eat Pray Love” has been changed from an R to a PG-13 by the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

But filmgoers may get a little more than they bargained for when they head out to see the New Age-y romantic comedy starting Aug. 13. According to a statement from the group’s Classification and Rating Appeals Board, the movie had been given an R rating for “brief strong language.” The film is now rated PG-13 for “brief strong language, some sexual references and male rear nudity.”

So it got some male rear nudity and then landed a looser rating. The ways of the MPAA are mysterious.

—Steven Zeitchik

‘Phantom’ goes to school?

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s global hit “The Phantom of the Opera” may be coming to a high school or college near you.

R&H Theatricals said Thursday it is accepting applications from school groups in the U.S. and Canada for performances beginning Sept. 1.

“Phantom” is a gothic tale of romance set in the Paris Opera and has been seen by 100 million people since it opened in 1986. It is still playing in London and in New York, where it is the longest-running show in Broadway history.

—Associated Press

Church is suing Getty Museum

The Getty Museum has been sued by an Armenian church in Southern California over pages from an ancient Bible that reside in the museum’s collection.

On Tuesday, the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America filed a $105-million civil lawsuit against the J. Paul Getty Museum, saying that the institution illegally bought the seven pages, which are known as the Canon Tables.

The church is demanding the return of the pages, saying they were ripped from the Armenian Orthodox Church’s Zeyt’un Gospels during the early part of the 20th century.

The Getty maintains that it legally acquired the Canon Tables and that the lawsuit should be dismissed. A spokeswoman said the Getty acquired the pages in 1994 from a private U.S. collection and that the museum reviewed the origins of the pieces.

—David Ng

From stage to HBO special

Carrie Fisher’s recent one-woman stage show “Wishful Drinking” started in Los Angeles and ran on Broadway earlier this season. Now the star is bringing it to cable TV.

HBO said Thursday that it will produce a television special that will feature elements of Fisher’s autobiographical stage show, which will be taped during a June 25 performance in South Orange, N.J.

The HBO show also will feature archival footage and interviews with friends and family. It is expected to air late this year.

—David Ng

Book publisher hires chief

In what it said was time for a “fresh approach,” Simon & Schuster has hired Jonathan Karp, who published Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s “True Compass,” to head its flagship trade imprint.

Simon & Schuster announced Thursday that Karp would replace David Rosenthal, who over the last 13 years worked with a wide range of authors, including Bob Woodward and Bob Dylan.

Like Rosenthal, the 46-year-old Karp has a long record of acquiring bestsellers, including Laura Hillenbrand’s “Seabiscuit” for Random House and Kennedy’s “True Compass” for Twelve, the imprint he founded in 2005 at the Hachette Book Group.

Like much of the industry, Simon & Schuster has had a difficult time in the last couple of years, laying off employees in 2008 and in 2009.

In the first quarter of 2010, sales fell 6.2%, to $151.7 million.

—Associated Press

Time to draw up new plans

Paige Rense Noland will retire in August after 35 years as editor in chief of Architectural Digest.

In making the announcement Thursday, Conde Nast said that during her tenure, “the magazine’s circulation grew from 50,000 to over 850,000 today with a total audience of nearly 5 million.”

A replacement was not immediately named. Rense Noland said that she plans to write a book about her late husband, artist Kenneth Noland.

—Lee Margulies