Quick Takes: Arbitron settles lawsuit

The Arbitron ratings company agreed Monday to pay $400,000 to settle a lawsuit in which it was accused of under-representing black and Latino listeners in its surveys of radio tastes in California’s largest cities.

Lawyers for the state, Los Angeles and San Francisco — which will receive the money — contended that Arbitron’s Portable People Meters system “dramatically” under-recruited from those populations when it began in 2008.

Arbitron found participants mainly by calling land-line telephones, a process that tends to under-represent minority populations. The settlement announced Monday mandates that Arbitron change its methods to count minority listeners more accurately. Arbitron admitted to no wrongdoing and said the changes already were in place.

—Associated Press

Escher show is top draw in 2011

The most highly attended museum exhibition of 2011 wasn’t in London, New York or Paris. The No. 1 slot is held by an M.C. Escher show in Rio de Janeiro, according to the Art Newspaper’s annual survey, which appeared in the monthly publication’s most recent issue.

“The Magical World of Escher” ran at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, a former bank building in the heart of Rio. Offering free admission, it saw 9,677 visitors a day, according to the Art Newspaper.

The most-attended U.S. exhibition was “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” a posthumous homage to the fashion designer that ran at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and averaged 8,025 visitors a day.

The highest-ranking L.A. show was “Tim Burton” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with 2,714 daily visitors.

—David Ng

Japanese art journeys to D.C.

A 30-scroll set of nature paintings from the 1700s that’s owned by Japan’s royal family and considered a cultural treasure is being shown in its entirety for the first time outside of the country at an exhibit in Washington.

The “Colorful Realm of Living Beings,” created more than 250 years ago by artist Ito Jakuchu, consists of intricate paintings of birds, flowers, insects, fish and other animals on vertical silk scrolls. It opens to the public Friday at the National Gallery of Art and will be on view through April 29.

For only the second time in 120 years, the nature paintings are paired with Jakuchu’s “Sakyamuni Triptych.” In this piece, three Buddhist deities overlook the bird-and-flower paintings to serve as the exhibit’s centerpiece.

Since 1889, the fragile silk scroll paintings have been held in separate locations. The nature paintings were donated to Japan’s royal family and held ever since by the world’s oldest monarchy. The Buddhist triptych is held at the monastery where Jakuchu originally left his works.

—associated press

PEN/Faulkner goes to Otsuka

Julie Otsuka’s “The Buddha in the Attic,” a brief, poetic novel about young Japanese women who immigrate to the U.S. and marry men they have never met, has won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced Monday that Otsuka will receive $15,000 for the prize, which has been given in previous years to Philip Roth and John Updike. Her novel was a finalist last fall for the National Book Award.

—Associated Press

‘Mad Men’ gets biggest audience

After a 17-month hiatus, the fifth-season return of “Mad Men” delivered 3.5 million viewers, the largest number in the AMC drama’s history.

Last season, “Mad Men” averaged 2.3 million total viewers per episode.

—Yvonne Villarreal

Grammer exits ‘Housewives’

Just as everyone had come to know her name, Camille Grammer has decided not to return for another season of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

Grammer cut ties, according to her publicist, Howard Bragman, because of conflicting views on the direction of her story line. “There were things that she didn’t want to talk about: kids, family, her personal life. Bravo wanted that. She said no.”

Bravo declined to comment on the matter. The network hasn’t said whether the series will return for a third season.

—Yvonne Villarreal