Quick Takes: Egypt coverage boosts network news ratings

The political crisis in Egypt and a sprawling winter storm helped the network evening newscasts to some of their biggest audiences in years.

NBC’s top-rated “Nightly News” averaged 11.3 million viewers last week, its largest weekly audience in six years, the Nielsen Co. said Tuesday. Brian Williams traveled to Cairo to anchor the newscast amid the political unrest.

To give that number some perspective, NBC’s evening newscast had more viewers last week, on average, than any of that network’s prime-time shows.

ABC’s “World News” averaged 9.8 million viewers, its highest numbers in four years, Nielsen said. The “CBS Evening News” averaged 7.4 million viewers, its best week since 2009.

The broadcasts had a captive audience: Many people were homebound because of the weather and turned on the TV looking for something to do.

—Associated Press

A Picasso goes for $40.7 million

A Pablo Picasso painting depicting his young lover Marie-Thérèse Walter sold Tuesday for $40.7 million at a London auction.

Sotheby’s said the 1932 painting, called “La Lecture,” was bought by an anonymous buyer over the phone after some six minutes of heated contest among bidders.

—Associated Press

A Belieber too? Well, maybe not

There is no doubt that Justin Bieber is everywhere.

With the latest Best Buy Super Bowl ad with Ozzy Osbourne, the film “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” and hit singles online, on the air and everywhere else, the so-called Beliebers have elevated the mop-topped Canadian to dizzying heights of stardom.

Now, he’s about to come back to Earth: Mad magazine’s longtime public face, Alfred E. Neuman — with his big ears and goofy grin — sports a Bieberesque bowl of hair on the cover of the Feb. 16 issue.

Bieber has already been on the cover of Vanity Fair.

“That was probably the highlight of his career, and being on the cover of Mad is the lowlight,” John Ficarra, editor-in-chief of Mad, said with a laugh.

—Associated Press

CSO conductor out after a fall

Conductor Riccardo Muti had his broken jaw wired shut and is undergoing tests for an unexplained fainting spell, forcing him to skip his remaining Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts this month, a symphony spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The renowned Italian conductor, 69, who was named the symphony’s music director a year ago, has been in a hospital since Thursday, when he fell from his podium onto the stage during rehearsal, breaking facial bones and gashing his chin.

Surgeons on Monday wired shut Muti’s jaw and inserted permanent plates into his jaw and cheekbone to promote healing, which will take at least three weeks, a symphony spokeswoman said.

Doctors are also performing tests to try to figure out why he fainted.

—Reuters

Met looking for a new Siegfried

The Metropolitan Opera in New York has lost its Siegfried for its costly new production of Richard Wagner’s “Ring” cycle. The company said Tuesday that Ben Heppner had withdrawn from the production because the heldentenor “has retired the role from his repertory.”

In recent years, Heppner has suffered vocal problems that have caused him to withdraw from a number of performances. The singer, who turned 55 in January, has long been regarded as one of the world’s top performers of Wagner. But a combination of illnesses and stress is believed to have taken a toll on his voice.

—David Ng

Finally

Grammy performers: Barbra Streisand has joined the lineup of performers at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, a list that also includes Eminem, Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber and Mick Jagger, among others.

Museum guitar: The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., has acquired the “Frank 2” guitar that Eddie Van Halen used during his 2007-2008 North American tour with Van Halen. It will be part of the museum’s instrument collection.

On the boards: Former “American Idol” star Sanjaya Malakar will join the cast of the off-Broadway musical “Freckleface Strawberry” on Feb. 23.