Hollywood Digest

NEW STUDY LINKS TV TIME, TEEN VIOLENCE

According to a new study by researchers at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, kids who watch more than one hour of TV a day during early adolescence are more likely to engage in violence as they get older.

The report concludes that the rate of violence -- assaults, fights, robberies, etc. -- increases significantly as the amount of daily TV consumption increases.

Researchers who examined more than subjects over 17 years reported that, among young people who watched less than one hour of TV a day at age 14, 5.7 percent took part in acts of aggression between the ages of 16 and 22. Among those who watched one to three hours daily, the rate jumped to 22.5 percent -- and for those who watched more than three hours, the rate was 28.8 percent.

The tendencies were more pronounced among boys than among girls.

The study appears in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

REMEMBERING UNCLE MILTIE

NBC -- the network that featured entertainment legend Milton Berle on the groundbreaking "Texaco Star Theater" in 1948 -- remembered Berle Thursday as "NBC's first TV superstar."

In a statement, the network recalled the impact that Berle -- who died Wednesday of cancer at 93 -- had on early network TV.

"Milton Berle did more than any other individual to bring television to the nation," said the network. "In the early years, there were Tuesday nights when virtually every television set in the country was tuned in to see 'Mr. Television,' a phenomenon never to be repeated."

Buddy Hackett, a comedian who spent as much time with Berle as anyone else in regular visits to the Friar's Club in Beverly Hills, Calif., said his old friend was more than a TV pioneer -- he was a teacher too.

"Whatever you see on television, Milton did it first," Hackett told the Los Angeles Time. "We used to have a lot of variety shows on television. No one knew what they were doing, no one knew how to do it. He showed them how to do it."

The Times also revived some old quotes from another TV pioneer -- Jackie Gleason, who starred in the legendary TV comedy, "The Honeymooners." Gleason once told an interviewer it was amazing that Berle headlined a variety show for seven years.

"That's a couple of lifetimes in this TV racket," said Gleason, who died in 1987.

"Tell you something else," said Gleason. "Wasn't for Berle, a lot of us wouldn't have got a break. When he became Mr. Television, those network guys began saying, 'We gotta get comics. They want funny stuff. Let's get funnymen.' Whatever else you say about Berle, don't forget that. And don't count him out, don't ever count him out. He'll be in there pitching for a long time."

In his 1998 memoir "So Far, So Funny," comedy veteran Hal Kanter called Berle "the Thomas Edison of our comedy theater, and every comedian working in his giant shadow owes him an enormous debt."

GRAMMYS ON THE MOVE AGAIN?

According to a report in the New York Daily News, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences is planning to bring the Grammy Awards back to New York after four years in Los Angeles.

The paper said Recording Academy president Michael Greene promised that a "major announcement" about the Grammys would be made on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

Citing sources, the paper reported that Greene is to announce that the 45th annual awards show will take place next February at Madison Square Garden. The Grammy Awards were moved to Los Angeles in 1998 after Greene and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani engaged in a highly publicized feud, apparently because Greene chewed out one of Giuliani's aides.

STILL WATCHING 'ELLIE'?

Although there had been reports earlier this week that NBC will drop the new Julia Louis-Dreyfus comedy "Watching Ellie" from its Tuesday primetime schedule after next week's episode, the network has announced that it will keep the show on the air for at least two more weeks.

NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker made the announcement himself, in a prepared statement released by the network.

"We're proud of 'Watching Ellie' and continue to be buoyed by the show's performance and its potential," said Zucker. "We want to give it every opportunity to find the audience it deserves."

The show -- which had steadily lost audience since its highly rated premiere in February -- actually attracted a larger 18-49 audience this week than it had the previous week. NBC said "Ellie" also attracted a larger 18-49 audience Tuesday night than its lead-in, a "Frasier" rerun.

Fans have at least four more new episodes of "Watching Ellie" to look forward to -- back-to-back episodes on April 2, and single new episodes on April 9 and April 16.

CASTING NOTES

According to a report in Daily Variety, Warren Beatty has dropped out of Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" and David Carradine has taken his place in the title role.

Beatty had been lined up to play a man who dispatches assassins (Darryl Hannah and Lucy Liu) to kill a former associate (Uma Thurman). Tarantino told Variety he and Beatty both thought Carradine would be a batter choice for the role.

"Me and Warren ... were having dinner the other night," said Tarantino, "and Warren said, 'Why haven't you gone to David Carradine with this?' And it became mutually obvious to us that this wasn't the one for me and Warren to do together."

He said he "totally" expects to do a movie with Beatty eventually.

Variety also reported that Will Smith would produce -- and maybe star in -- a remake of "Uptown Saturday Night," the 1974 comedy directed by Sidney Poitier, in which Poitier and Bill Cosby starred as two more or less upright citizens who have to chase down some lowlifes to recover a stolen winning lottery ticket.