Quick Takes: Bret Michaels helps hospital

Singer Bret Michaels rocked a Phoenix hospital Thursday with a donation that will benefit its patients and their families.

The Poison frontman announced plans to design a hospitality and music room at the St. Joseph’s Barrow Neurological Institute where he was treated in April 2010 for a brain hemorrhage.

Michaels said the room will include music listening stations, guitars and TVs. He hopes it can help others with their emotional and mental recovery.

—Associated Press

Steven Tyler: I was sober

Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler said Thursday that he was sober when he fell in the shower in his Paraguay hotel room this week.

Tyler, who received stitches to his face and broke his teeth in the fall on Tuesday, told NBC’s “Today” show that he was suffering from “Montezuma’s revenge,” or stomach flu.

“I was in the shower and I got nauseous, and I started to get sick and I fell on my face,” the 63-year-old “American Idol” judge told Matt Lauer in a telephone interview from Argentina, where he is continuing an Aerosmith tour. “I just passed out.”

—Reuters

IDA finalists are announced

The documentaries “Better This World,” “How to Die in Oregon,” “Nostalgia for the Light,” “The Redemption of General Butt Naked” and “El Lugar Mas Pequeno” (The Tiniest Place) will compete for the feature-length prize at the International Documentary Assn.’s 2011 IDA Awards.

The IDA, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that promotes nonfiction filmmaking, can influence the shape of the Academy Awards’ documentary categories: Last year’s IDA winner, “Waste Land,” was an Oscar nominee.

The IDA Documentary Awards will be handed out Dec. 2 in Los Angeles.

—Rebecca Keegan

KRLA dumps Kevin James

Radio talk show host Kevin James has a lot more time to devote to his campaign for Los Angeles mayor: He’s been dropped by KRLA-AM (870).

James had occupied the weeknight midnight-3 a.m. slot at the station since 2007, but he departed at the end of last week.

KRLA Program Director Chuck Tyler said the decision was made to air repeats of KRLA’s weekday morning program hosted by Dennis Prager.

“I respect KRLA’s decision and now look forward to talking to radio audiences on other stations and other KRLA shows as a candidate rather than just as a host,” James said.

—Lee Margulies

Frank Gehry has designs on Asia

Frank Gehry, designer of Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, is seeking projects in Asian countries including China and India as slower U.S. growth crimps development in the world’s largest economy.

The architect said he’s competing to plan a museum in one of China’s fast-expanding metropolitan areas as well as a “very spiritual kind of a building” in India. He declined to give further details.

Gehry, 82, is turning to Asia as developers start few projects in the U.S.

Meanwhile, “there’s an art explosion in China,” Gehry said. “It’s really great — very exciting.”

—Bloomberg News

Judge approves musicians’ deal

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a new collective bargaining agreement between the financially troubled Philadelphia Orchestra and its musicians union.

The four-year contract, ratified about two weeks ago by players and the Philadelphia Orchestra Assn. board, takes effect Nov. 1.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eric Frank issued his written order approving the deal Thursday, a day after a hearing on the matter.

Terms of the new contract call for shrinking the number of players from 105 to 95 through retirements and attrition and for cutting salaries about 15%. The minimum salary for Philadelphia Orchestra musicians is about $125,000 a year.

—Associated Press

Firing by KLOS stuns Jim Ladd

Jim Ladd, a fixture on the L.A. radio scene for more than 40 years, was one of more than a dozen people laid off at KLOS-FM (95.5) this week.

Also let go was midday DJ Bob Buchmann, who also doubled as program director.

“I was very stunned and I still am. I have been through this before, but it is always traumatic,” Ladd told the Orange County Register. He’d been at the station for the last 14 years and had worked there previously, along with stints at KNAC, KMET and KLSX, among others.

—From a Times staff writer