POP/ROCKGarcia Autopsy Results: Grateful Dead front man...

POP/ROCK

Garcia Autopsy Results: Grateful Dead front man Jerry Garcia’s heart simply gave out, the coroner has concluded. The Grateful Dead leader had used heroin within days of his death at a rehab center Aug. 9, but that didn’t contribute directly to his heart attack, Marin County coroner’s investigator Gary Erickson said Tuesday. “He was a 53-year-old man with hardening of the arteries; this was a mechanical process,” Erickson said, adding that two of three arteries leading from Garcia’s heart had been reduced to “a pinpoint” with 85% blockage. The third artery had 30% blockage.

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Aretha’s Latest Tax Trouble: Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin owes the Internal Revenue Service and Michigan Department of Treasury thousands of dollars in back taxes, the government agencies said. The IRS and the state’s treasury department have placed liens of $661,456 on Franklin’s $1.16-million suburban Detroit home. The largest claim is from the IRS, which said Franklin, 53, owes $489,525 in 1993 personal income taxes, interest and penalties. The state’s claims are for $100,641 in income taxes and $40,150 in single business taxes, both from 1994. The IRS liens also represent a claim on sales of personal property like cars or jewelry, an agency spokeswoman said. This isn’t the first time tax collectors have made claims against Franklin. Past liens on the singer’s property that were released when claims were settled total more than $500,000, records show.

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The Singing Skater?: Fallen figure skater Tonya Harding, who already tried acting in the low-budget action film “Break Away,” is now turning to pop music. Harding has formed a band, called the Golden Blades, which is to debut in her hometown of Portland, Ore., on Sunday at a concert to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. A local radio station invited Harding, who apparently sings soft pop tunes, to perform. The U.S. Figure Skating Assn. banned Harding for life for helping to cover up an attack on rival Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan in January, 1994.

TELEVISION

Disney’s Newest Operator: “ER” star Anthony Edwards has used his hit NBC series to slide into the producer’s chair, courtesy of Walt Disney Television. The actor, nominated for an Emmy for his work on “ER,” has signed an exclusive multiyear development agreement with Disney to create and executive produce television series, movies and miniseries. The deal will also allow him to act in and direct those programs. Walt Disney Television President Dean Valentine hinted Wednesday that some of Edwards’ contemporaries could soon be signing similar deals. “As our division expands its scope to include hour dramas, projects for cable and movies, we are also expanding our search for creative people of Anthony’s caliber,” Valentine said.

MOVIES

Oscar’s Musical Alterations: Rules for the 68th annual Academy Awards were mailed Wednesday to the motion picture academy’s 5,027 voting members. Included were changes in two musical categories: the best original song score Oscar will become the best original music or comedy score honor, and the best original score award will be renamed best original dramatic score. The renaming effectively broadens the former song score category. The old award was given only when the field included at least five qualifying works, a requirement not met since 1984, when the award went to Prince for “Purple Rain.” The musical or comedy score category will include “song scores” and/or “orchestral scores” from musicals, comedies, light romances and most animated features, while the dramatic score category will include “serious” dramatic and action score submissions.

ART

Viewing Da Vinci’s Codex: Leonardo da Vinci’s theories on water went on display this week in the canal city of Venice at an exhibition of the Leicester Codex. The exhibition is the first public viewing of the document, formerly known as the Codex Hammer, since it was bought from the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates last November. He paid $30.8 million, a record for a manuscript. “No scientist since that time has really had the breadth of thinking and advanced science in the way that [Da Vinci] did,” Gates said in a recorded message at the opening of the exhibition Tuesday. The 72 pages of the codex will remain on display in the Palazzo Querini-Dubois overlooking Venice’s Grand Canal until Oct. 29.

QUICK TAKES

A pilot and cameraman working on a shoot for singer Meat Loaf’s video for “I’d Lie for You” were killed Tuesday evening when their helicopter crashed in California’s Sequoia National Forest, near Kernville. Investigators say the helicopter hit a power line during filming, causing it to crash into a hillside. The two victims’ names were not released. . . . Country singer K.T. Oslin was “recovering nicely” Wednesday from coronary artery bypass surgery she underwent Tuesday at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, a hospital spokeswoman said. Oslin, 54, underwent the triple bypass operation after major blockages were discovered Monday during a routine physical checkup. . . . The “Dangerous Minds” soundtrack--featuring the nation’s top-selling single, Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”--sold 236,000 copies last week to remain the country’s top-selling album for the second week in a row, according to figures released Wednesday by SoundScan.