Quick Takes - July 27, 2012

ABC report a ‘mistake’

ABC News President Ben Sherwood said reporter Brian Ross’ on-air speculation that James Holmes, the suspect in the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., could be linked to the tea party “did not live up to the standards and practices of ABC News.”

“We put something on the air that we did not know to be true and the part that we needed to be true was not germane to the story we were covering,” Sherwood told reporters at the semiannual Television Critics Assn. press tour in Beverly Hills, referring to Ross’ report on”Good Morning America”on July 20.

“This was an unfortunate mistake,” he said, adding that the network was taking steps to make sure it does not happen again, although he declined to say specifically what those steps were.

—Joe Flint

‘Gangster Squad’ release delayed

“Gangster Squad,” aWarner Bros.movie featuring a shootout at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, will not arrive in theaters in September as initially planned but instead will be released in January.

Trailers for “Gangster Squad,” which had been set for a Sept. 7 release, prominently featured the shootout. The 1940s period piece, centered on gangster Mickey Cohen’s attempted takeover of Los Angeles, stars Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling and comes from”Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer. In the theater scene, automatic gunfire rips through the screen as horrified filmgoers rush for the exits and police try to stop the mayhem.

After the news of Friday’s shooting in Aurora, Colo.,Warner Bros.pulled the trailer from theaters.

—Julie Makinen

CBS taps Norah O’Donnell

Nearly eight months after CBS’ morning show relaunched with a focus on hard news, co-anchor Erica Hill is out, replaced by CBS News’ chief White House correspondent Norah O’Donnell.

O’Donnell will join co-hosts Charlie Rose and Gayle King on “CBS This Morning” in the fall.

Hill, who was a co-anchor of the previous incarnation of CBS’ morning program, “The Early Show,” is in discussions regarding a new role.

Despite the changes made in the last year, “CBS This Morning” is third in the ratings, behind “Today” and “Good Morning America,” which have been fiercely competing for the No.1 spot.

—Patrick Kevin Day

Digital public library imagined

The National Endowment for the Humanities is providing a $1-million grant to launch a nonprofit effort to digitize the nation’s libraries and create a Digital Public Library of America.

Endowment chairman Jim Leach announced the grant Thursday to help create the infrastructure.

Digitizing books and building a common platform for libraries to contribute will take years and millions more dollars from private partners.

The project is being spearheaded by Harvard University’s library.

Google’sefforts to digitize books have at times been thwarted in court by copyright laws. Those restrictions may also affect a digital public library.

—Associated Press

Getty closing for Carmageddon 2

Carmageddon will return in late September when a portion of the 405 Freeway will be shut down for 53 hours. As a result, the Getty Center will close to the public and most staff on the weekend of Sept. 29-30. It will reopen to the public Oct. 2.

The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades won’t be affected, the museum said.

During the first Carmageddon in 2011, the Getty Center also closed to the public for two days.

The second installment of the freeway project involves the widening of the 405 and includes demolition work on the Mulholland Drive bridge. The 405 Freeway will be shut down between the 10 and 101 freeways while the work is done.

The Getty said that a performance by the Calder Quartet that was scheduled for Sept. 29 has been rescheduled for Oct. 5.

—David Ng

Snow Patrol gets a later curfew

When it comes to late-night rock in London’s Hyde Park, apparently it’s less a case of who you are than who you’re playing for.

Less than two weeks after concert promoters cut short a performance by Bruce Springsteen and his guest Paul McCartney for playing past the established 10:30 p.m. curfew on concerts in the park, Westminster Council officials have extended the curfew until 1 a.m. for British rock group Snow Patrol for the band’s performance Friday.

“The opening night of the Olympics is clearly an exceptional evening and the Hyde Park show on Friday is timed to run around the opening ceremony of the Olympics,” council member Audrey Lewis said by way of explanation this week. “It is not a case of a straightforward concert night at Hyde Park.”

Springsteen fans quickly took to Twitter to express their outrage: “That’s life,” Mariann Brooklyn tweeted to E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt’s Twitter page. “Different rules for all.”

Van Zandt wrote: “So many of you are ... off Snow Patrol getting after midnight curfew. I checked apparently as long as it’s an Olympic disturbance it’s ok!”

—Randy Lewis