News from the entertainment capital

HONORS FOR MUSIC LEGENDS

The Recording Academy announced Tuesday that it has chosen Count Basie, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Al Green and Joni Mitchell to receive its 2002 Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Producer-recording engineer Tom Dowd and pioneering rock and roll deejay Alan Freed will receive Trustees Awards.

All of the honors will be presented in conjunction with the 44th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony on Feb. 27 in Los Angeles.

"The recipients of these awards are in a rarified league all their own," said Recording Academy president/CEO Michael Greene. "They are a prestigious group of diverse and influential creators who have given us some of the most distinctive and seminal recordings of the last century. Their work exemplifies the highest creative and technical standards by which we all measure our own personal and professional contributions."

Past winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Patsy Cline, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Barbra Streisand and Stevie Wonder.

HONORS FOR JOHN WILLIAMS

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures announced Tuesday that it will present its 2001 Career Achievement Award for music composition to John Williams, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer of the music scores for the "Star Wars," Indiana Jones" and "Superman" movies.

Williams has been nominated for 39 Oscars, winning five times -- for "Schindler's List," "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Star Wars," "Jaws" and "Fiddler on the Roof."

He has won 18 Grammys -- three for "Star Wars" and two each for "Superman," "E.T.," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." He won single Grammys for "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jaws," "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan."

Williams composed the music for the current box-office hit, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," and for Steven Spielberg's "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence," which was named one of 2001's Top 10 films by the NBR last week.

The Board will present the award at its annual awards ceremony on Jan. 7, 2002 at Tavern on the Green in New York.

One week later, Sony Classical will release Williams' new CD, "American Journey," which features "Call of the Champions," the official theme of 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. In February, Sony Classical will release a CD of Williams' music for cello, featuring Yo-Yo Ma as soloist on the premiere recording of the Cello Concerto, which Williams wrote for Ma.

LORETTA LYNN WILL CARRY THE TORCH

Country music legend Loretta Lynn -- whose autobiography, "Coal Miner's Daughter," was made into the 1980 movie of the same name -- will be an official torchbearer for the U.S. 2002 Winter Olympics this Sunday.

Lynn will receive the torch at 6:05 p.m. (EST) at Maylawn Ave. in Louisville, Ky. and carry it about a quarter of a mile down Crittenden Dr.

"This is one of the greatest things I've ever been asked to do!" said Lynn, who was recently inducted into the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame.

Lynn has won virtually every music award there is, including a Grammy to go with her Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music and American Music Awards. She's also in the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

ARNOLD IN SICK BAY

Arnold Schwarzenegger was hospitalized on Sunday with several broken ribs, sustained in a motorcycle accident Sunday afternoon.

A publicist for the 54-year-old star of the "Terminator" movies said he was taken to St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica "in good spirits, feeling sore, but otherwise fine."

In a prepared statement, Schwarzenegger advised fans: "Don't worry. This won't affect my skiing with my family at Sun Valley this Christmas."

The big guy had a well-publicized hospitalization once before, in April 1997, when he had elective surgery to replace a heart valve.

Schwarzenegger -- who is in talks to earn a reported $30 million for a third "Terminator" movie -- will show up on U.S. theater screens in February in "Collateral Damage." That's the movie that was pulled from the release schedule in September after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because distributors were uncomfortable over a part of the plot that deals with terrorist attacks.

'PEARL HARBOR' SCORES BIG ON VIDEO

It looks like "Pearl Harbor" will make more money for Disney in the home video market than it made in its theatrical release.

The home video release generated a reported $130 million in consumer spending in its first week on the market -- a record amount for first-week business.

Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment unit reported 3.7 million DVDs sold during the week beginning Dec. 4. Some 3.2 million of those units were bought by consumers, eclipsing the record of 2.5 million consumer sales, set in November by Universal Studios Home Video's "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Along with 3.3 million videocassette copies, "Pearl Harbor's" overall sales of 7 million units works out to roughly $130 million, after just one week on sale. The movie grossed a little more than $198 million at the U.S. box office.

DVD sales overall are taking off, largely because the price of DVD players has come down substantially since last year. It was just two months ago that Universal's "The Mummy Returns" broke new ground by becoming the first DVD to sell 2 million copies in its first week in release.

Now, according to DreamWorks, "Shrek" has already sold 5.5 million DVDs to become the best-selling DVD yet. "Gladiator" has sold 5 million DVDs.

More eye-popping DVD sales figures could occur in the coming week when two more of this year's biggest movie hits come out on home video. "Rush Hour 2" grossed $226 million and "Jurassic Park III" took in $181 million.

CHEADLE WILL NARRATE BLACK COMEDY SERIES

Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle will narrate a five-part documentary series about black comedians on Comedy Central during Black History Month in February.

Cheadle -- the star of "Ocean's Eleven," "Traffic," "Out of Sight" and "Devil in a Blue Dress" -- will be heard narrating "The Heroes of Black Comedy," featuring accounts of the work and influence of Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock and "The Original Kings of Comedy," Steve Harvey, Bernie Mac, D.L. Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer.

The series will also examine the influence of hip-hop comedy, with special emphasis on Russell Simmons' "Def Comedy Jam."

TUPAC DOCUMENTARY IN THE WORKS

MTV Films is developing a feature-length documentary about the life and work of Tupac Shakur, the rapper-actor who was shot and killed in Las Vegas in 1996 at 25.

Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, will serve as an executive producer on the project. The picture -- planned for a 2003 theatrical release -- will include new songs and never-before-seen video footage, including part of a Shakur concert as well as home movies and video.

It will also feature material from Shakur's journals and personal letters, and some of his poetry.