Quick Takes: Autry acquires Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive

The Autry National Center announced Tuesday it has acquired the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, containing materials and memorabilia from the duo’s more than 50-year entertainment career.

The collection includes newspaper clippings, programs from the Rose Parade and “The Roy Rogers Show,” sheet music, promotional materials, licensed objects such as puzzles and coloring books, photographs and business files.

Center officials said that once they have categorized and organized the materials, key items will be exhibited in the museum’s Imagination Gallery.

The museum already has some items relating to Rogers and Evans on display, including a one-of-a-kind plastic saddle Rogers wore aboard his horse Trigger as grand marshal of the 1952 Tournament of Roses Parade.

—City News Service

Objections to Bigelow film

Paraguay’s government won’t support Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s latest reported project, a film on the notorious Triple Border region that the country shares with Argentina and Brazil.

Tourism Minister Liz Cramer said the proposed movie by the director of “The Hurt Locker” would probably damage the region’s image and have “a negative economic impact.”

The Triple Border region is known as a smugglers haven. U.S. officials have said it is a center for terrorism financing, a claim denied by the three South American nations.

—Associated Press

A prequel for ‘Spartacus’

Don’t put away the swords just yet.

Starz has ordered a six-part prequel to its original series “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,”

the network announced Tuesday.

Andy Whitfield, who starred as the title character in the original series, will resume his role briefly in the prequel;

the actor has been battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Social climbers Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) and Batiatus (John Hannah) get the Roman treatment in the story about the rise of the House of Batiatus and its gladiators before the arrival of Spartacus as a slave. It will air in January.

—Yvonne Villarreal

More on-air treatment

Surgery at breakfast time is the latest odd television trend.

ABC weatherman Sam Champion will have skin cancer cells removed from his shoulder live

on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, publicizing his own health issues to make viewers more aware of their own.

All three network morning shows have gone into operating rooms or doctors’ offices the last two months. CBS’ Harry Smith had a live colonoscopy on “The Early Show” in March. A series on NBC’s “Today” show in March showed live brain and heart surgeries, and the birth of a baby by cesarean section.

Jim Murphy, “GMA” senior executive producer, said he thinks the medical segments provide an important service, noting that he’s often approached by people who say they’ve had conditions checked out after seeing something on the ABC program.

—Associated Press

Actor’s lawsuit can advance

Don Johnson, who claims he is owed millions of dollars for playing a cop on “Nash Bridges,” will get a chance to take his case before a jury, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The 60-year-old actor was in the courtroom as L.A. Superior Court Judge Michael L. Stern denied a motion by lawyers for Rysher Entertainment Inc. to dismiss the case. The judge said a jury should decide whether Rysher breached its contract with Johnson.

He ordered the trial to begin June 21.

“Nash Bridges” ran from 1996 to 2001 and starred Johnson as a San Francisco police detective.

The lawsuit alleges that since Johnson was a co-owner of the copyright, he is entitled to half of the show’s profits.

The suit states that the series earned more than $300 million in revenues and more than $150 million from syndication.

—City News Service

Finally

Book award: ESPN and a leading writers group, the New York-based PEN American Center, are offering a new literary honor: the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing.

The award will be given annually for the best nonfiction sports book, with the winner receiving $5,000.