Quick Takes: Art-film gala at LACMA

In an effort to call attention to its revamped film program, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art said Thursday it would stage an Art + Film Gala on Nov. 5 honoring filmmaker Clint Eastwood and artist John Baldessari.

Proceeds from the fundraising event will be used to “support LACMA’s initiative to make film more central to the museum’s curatorial programming,” the museum said, including the weekly film series it co-sponsors with Film Independent. The gala, to be held at LACMA, will be co-chaired by LACMA Trustee Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio, who stars in Eastwood’s latest film, “J. Edgar,” which will have its world premiere at AFI Fest in Hollywood on Nov. 3.

—Lee Margulies

Harrison exhibit at L.A. museum

The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles will mount a major exhibition on the life and music of George Harrison next month in conjunction with the forthcoming Martin Scorsese documentary with which it shares the title, “George Harrison: Living in the Material World.”

The museum is working closely with Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, in putting together what’s being described as the first major look focusing exclusively on Harrison, both during his years with the Beatles and his post-Fab Four solo career that included a stint with the Traveling Wilburys supergroup with Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.

Opening Oct. 11, the exhibition will include several of his guitars, stage clothing, handwritten lyrics, personal journals and photographs taken by him.

—Randy Lewis

Museum returns looted painting

Israel’s national museum said Thursday that it has returned a painting to the estate of its creator, decades after the masterpiece was looted from a Jewish museum in Nazi Germany.

The Israel Museum said “The Return of Tobias,” a 1934 painting by German Jewish artist Max Liebermann, is now in Berlin after it was determined the work belongs to Liebermann’s heirs.

Liebermann, who died in 1935 at the age of 88, was a prolific painter who led the avant-garde artistic society known as the Berlin Secession. He also served as president of the Prussian Academy of Arts during the 1920s and early 1930s. Some of his works have been valued at more than $1 million.

The Israel Museum’s director, James Snyder, said Liebermann loaned his painting to the Jewish Museum in Berlin in the 1930s. The work, along with many others, disappeared from the museum during World War II. German Nazis stole countless art treasures from museums across Europe.

—Associated Press

SAG to honor actress Moore

Mary Tyler Moore has turned the world on with her smile and talent for the last half-century, first as Laura Petrie in the classic 1961-66 CBS sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and then as Mary Richards, a single woman working as a producer in a Minneapolis TV station, in the 1970-77 CBS comedy “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Along the way, she earned seven Emmy Awards, an Academy Award nomination for her dramatic turn in the 1980 best picture Oscar winner “Ordinary People” and a Tony for her role on Broadway in “Whose Life Is It, Anyway?”

Moore, 74, added another accolade Thursday when the Screen Actors Guild announced that she would be the recipient of its 2011 Life Achievement Award. It will be presented during the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 29, airing on TBS and TNT.

In May, Moore went through a successful surgery to have a benign brain tumor removed.

Previous recipients of the award include Charles Durning, Ernest Borgnine and Betty White.

—Susan King

HBO picks up Sorkin project

HBO said Thursday it had picked up a project from Aaron Sorkin, who won an Academy Award this year for writing “The Social Network” and earlier created the Emmy winning TV series “The West Wing.”

The hourlong series, as yet untitled, will look at the corporate and commercial pressures facing a fictional cable news network.

It centers on a cable news anchor, played by Jeff Daniels, his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), the newsroom staff (Alison Pill, John Gallagher Jr., Olivia Munn, Dev Patel, Thomas Sadoski) and their boss (Sam Waterston).

—Yvonne Villarreal

Model to host reality show

Supermodel Molly Sims will host a new competition reality show on Lifetime about the cutthroat world of accessories designing called “Project Accessory.”

In the spinoff of “Project Runway” coming later this year, 12 contestants will take part in challenges to highlight their creativity and eye for detail when creating jewelry, belts, bags and shoes.

—Associated Press