Quick Takes: Larry King back on CNN

Larry King back on CNN

In his first CNN special since stepping down from his nightly talk show, Larry King visits a Las Vegas clinic where Alzheimer’s disease is studied. He is accompanied by former President Ronald Reagan’s son Ron.

King’s special, “Unthinkable: The Alzheimer’s Epidemic,” airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on CNN. It features interviews with several celebrities touched by the disease, including Maria Shriver, whose father, Sargent Shriver, had it, and actor Seth Rogen.

King, who has been replaced by Piers Morgan, said he misses his nightly platform — sometimes. He would have liked to have been involved in big stories like the Japanese earthquake and Egyptian political uprising, he said.

“But I don’t miss the Kardashians,” he said.

—Associated Press

NEA: The arts outgross movies

The National Endowment for the Arts has released a new study showing that although more Americans regularly go to the movies, they spend more money on the performing arts in terms of ticket revenue.

The performing arts are generating billions in revenue, falling in between sports events and the movies as a measure of their economic value, according to the study released Thursday.

The most recent estimates from 2009 show Americans spent $14.5 billion on tickets for the performing arts. As a comparison, that’s $6 billion less than Americans spent on sports admissions but

$4 billion more than they spent on movie tickets.

More people are attending movies but are willing to pay more for theater, concerts and other performances. The study shows theaters and concerts from Broadway to small towns draw about 1.5 million attendees every day. At the same time, about 3.4 million are attending the movies each day, and sports events draw nearly 2.7 million people daily.

—Associated Press

CNBC’s Burnett moving to CNN

CNBC daytime anchor Erin Burnett is jumping to CNN.

The news network announced Friday that it had signed Burnett. She will anchor a general news program at CNN sometime after her arrival in June, although the time slot and format have yet to be determined.

—Associated Press

Harper Lee disputes claim

The publisher of a book about Harper Lee is insisting that the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” cooperated with the project.

Earlier this week, Penguin Press announced it had acquired “The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee,” a memoir by former Chicago Tribune reporter Marja Mills. The publisher said the book was written with “direct access” to Lee, who has rarely talked to the press over the last half-century. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” released in 1960, was her only novel.

Lee, who turned 85 on Thursday, then issued a statement through the law firm Barnett, Bugg, Lee & Carter in Monroeville, Ala., where she is based. The statement said she had not “authorized such a book” or “willingly participated.”

But on Friday, Penguin released a letter dated March 20, 2011, and signed by Alice Lee, the author’s sister, that offers confirmation that she and Harper Lee cooperated with Mills. Mills reiterated that point in a statement of her own.

The Monroeville law firm, reached on the phone Friday, said it would have no further comment. Adding to the confusion: The “Lee” in Barnett, Bugg, Lee & Carter is Alice Lee.

Penguin hasn’t set a release date for the book.

—Associated Press

No U.S. passport for Superman?

Truth, justice and the … global way?

Superman has started a stir with a declaration in the new issue of Action Comics that he intends to renounce his U.S. citizenship because he’s tired of his actions being construed as instruments of U.S. policy.

The Man of Steel, who immigrated to Earth as a child from Krypton and was adopted by the Kents in Smallville, Kan., comes to the conclusion that he’s better off serving the world at large after he’s accused of causing an international incident by flying to Tehran amid a large protest.

News of the Superman decision has drawn critical comments in blogs and online forums, but DC Comics says it’s not criticizing the U.S.

The publisher says the Man of Steel remains as American as apple pie.

Superman, like his alter ego, Clark Kent, remains, “as always, committed to his adopted home and his roots as a Kansas farm boy from Smallville,” said DC co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio.

—Associated Press