Quick Takes - Oct. 15, 2011

‘Charlie’s Angels’ out

Goodbye, Charlie: “Charlie’s Angels” is joining the cancellation club after four episodes.

ABC’s attempt at revamping the 1970s campy series with Minka Kelly, Annie Ilonzeh and Rachael Taylor as three young detectives in Miami proved futile. The series brought in 8.7 million viewers with its Sept. 22 premiere, but the numbers dropped from there. Thursday’s episode garnered 6 million viewers, a marginal increase from the previous week.

Production has already shut down on the series, and the remaining episodes will air until the network decides what will fill the time slot.

The fate of “Pan Am” remains to be determined.

—Yvonne Villarreal

Writers back protesters

Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists Jennifer Egan and Michael Cunningham are among more than 100 authors who, in an online petition, are declaring their support for Occupy Wall Street.

The petition on occupywriters.com reads: “We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world.”

Others supporting the protests include “Lemony Snicket” author Daniel Handler, Barbara Ehrenreich, Ann Patchett and Andre Dubus III.

Associated Press

‘Flowers of War’ to pursue Oscar

China’s “The Flowers of War,” Zhang Yimou’s historical epic starring Christian Bale, will be among the 63 films competing to win the foreign-language Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced.

“Flowers,” directed by the famed Chinese auteur whose resume includes “Hero” and “House of Flying Daggers,” is set in 1937 during the Japanese invasion of Nanking and casts Bale as a salty mortician who risks his life to protect a group of schoolchildren. The drama will be in contention alongside films such as Iran’s “A Separation,” Asghar Farhadi’s festival darling that Sony Pictures Classics will release at the end of the year, and Israel’s “Footnote.”

Among the biggest surprises is the entry for Albania, with the academy choosing “Amnesty,” from director Bujar Alimani, over Joshua Marston’s “The Forgiveness of Blood,” the country’s initial choice. Marston’s film, which was co-written by an Albanian writer and was shot in Albania with Albanian-language dialogue, came under scrutiny initially with some protesters, including director Alimani, claiming that a film by an American should not be the country’s official choice.

It’s the second time a film from Marston did not meet the eligibility requirements set forth by the academy’s foreign-language committee. Marston’s 2004 feature, “Maria Full of Grace,” which depicted the life of a Colombian drug mule, was deemed ineligible for not featuring sufficient Colombian creative input.

Also disqualified was the entry from the Central African Republic. It too was filmed by an American, in this case a woman, and didn’t feature enough crew members from the selected country.

—Nicole Sperling

Service set for Elizabeth Taylor

A private memorial commemorating the life of the late actress Elizabeth Taylor has been scheduled for Sunday on the Warner Bros. lot, a representative of her trust said Friday.

Taylor died in March of congestive heart failure. She was 79.

She was buried during a small, private funeral.

The Sunday memorial at the Stephen J. Ross Theater in Los Angeles is a private event, and the media will not be allowed in, according to trust spokeswoman Jamie Cadwell.

CNN

$2-million gift for the Fowler

Thanks to one of the first fortunes made in Silicon Valley more than 50 years ago, UCLA’s Fowler Museum has a $2-million endowment to fund its curator of African arts.

The pledge announced this week is from Deborah and Jay Last of Beverly Hills; he arrived in San Jose in 1956 and the following year was one of eight co-founders of Fairchild Semiconductor, which touched off a technological revolution by introducing the silicon transistor.

Last has a longstanding passion for Africa and African art, and the couple’s past donations to the Fowler include a major collection of Congolese art that formed the core of its 2001 touring exhibition, “Art of the Lega.” The museum also focuses on the arts and culture of Asia, the Pacific and the Americas.

— Mike Boehm

Finally

Renewed: ABC has given full-season orders to freshman series “Revenge” and “Suburgatory.”