Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe UCLA WILL HONOR KIRK DOUGLAS Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas will receive the UCLA Medal -- the highest honor the university confers -- at the June 14 commencement ceremony for the School of Theater, Film and Television. Advertisement The medal is presented to "people who have made extraordinary contributions to UCLA or whose cultural, humanitarian or political achievements are of such significance to merit the honor." UCLA said in a statement that Douglas will be recognized for "his extraordinary accomplishments in film and television and his lifelong commitment to philanthropic and humanitarian causes." Douglas -- who received an honorary Academy Award in 1996 -- was one of the first independent film producers in Hollywood in 1955 when he and his wife Anne formed the Bryna Company. Douglas has been credited with breaking the Hollywood blacklist in 1958, by giving screenwriter Dalton Trumbo a screen credit for writing "Spartacus." Advertisement Douglas has also been honored with the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. He has traveled around the world to promote democracy, visiting war zones in Beirut and Lebanon and more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. In 1981 President Jimmy Carter presented Douglas with the nation's highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom. The Douglas Foundation supports such causes as the Los Angeles Mission and the Anne and Kirk Douglas Playground Awards -- created by Anne Douglas in 1997 when she discovered that most public schools in Los Angeles were equipped with deteriorating playground equipment. Directors Guild of America president Martha Coolidge ("If These Walls Could Talk 2," "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge") will speak to an estimated 250 graduates of the School of Theater, Film and Television at the June 14 commencement. BREAKING THE CHAIN ON BROADWAY Broadway went into the 2001-02 season riding a 10-year wave of consecutive record-breaking years at the box office, but Sept. 11 and the general economic slowdown took their toll -- as the Great White Way fell short of a record this time around. Despite the off year, total grosses for the season amounted to $642.5 million, down $22.9 million -- 3.4 percent -- from 2000-01. That year's receipts had been up 10.4 percent from 1999-00. Advertisement Overall attendance during the season just past, just shy of 11 million, was down about 1 million from last year. It was the first year since 1995-96 that fewer than 11 million people took in a Broadway show. The 2001-02 Broadway season closed with a relatively healthy take over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The gross for 33 shows came in at $15.3 million -- up 2.36 percent from the previous week. HOLD ON A MINUTE Early estimates about a $202 million Memorial Day holiday weekend at the U.S. box office were overly optimistic. As it turns out, the final number was $200.1 million -- but still big enough to qualify as the biggest four-day holiday ever. It was the first four-day weekend box-office gross of more than $200 million, and came in 7.5 percent better than the box-office numbers posted over Memorial Day weekend last year, when moviegoers spent $186.1 million on tickets. So far this year, the North American box office has taken in $3.5 billion -- putting it 22 percent ahead of last year's record-setting pace. Attendance is up an estimated 17 percent over last year. At this rate, the box office will set a new record for summer receipts, $3.06 billion, and for the year overall, $8.35 billion, according to box-office analysts. Advertisement HERE'S A SWITCH American TV viewers have been devouring movies and TV shows about war heroes, such as the Emmy-winning HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers," but the A&E cable network has something on the drawing board about a famous traitor. In fact, it's more than a traitor. It's a man whose name came to be synonymous with treachery -- Benedict Arnold. Aidan Quinn ("Avalon," "Music of the Heart") stars in "Traitor: Benedict Arnold," with Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") playing George Washington.
