Quick Takes - April 5, 2008

KCET pulls series over FCC worries

Officials at KCET-TV pulled its planned broadcast of “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?,” which was to begin airing Sunday, after concerns arose at the public-TV station this week about possible fines from the Federal Communications Commission.

The four-part documentary series, which examines the effect of social and economic inequities upon health, contained a graphic depiction of body parts and an obscene word that could run afoul of federal decency standards, station spokeswoman Laurel Lambert said Friday. (A review of the series appeared in Friday’s Calendar.)

To avoid potential fines, the station could run the series between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when FCC decency standards are relaxed, she added.

“We don’t know yet when or if the series will run on KCET,” Lambert said. “We’re still deciding what to do.”

-- Martin Miller

O’Keeffe ruling will be appealed

Controversy continues to swirl around the collection of paintings Georgia O’Keeffe donated to Fisk University in Nashville.

In March, a judge permanently banned any sale of the 101-piece collection -- which not only includes works by O’Keefe but also Picasso, Renoir and Cezanne -- and set an October deadline for Fisk to retrieve the artwork from storage and put it on display.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico had sued to gain the rights over the collection because of the school’s attempts to sell paintings and because they weren’t currently on display.

But the university said this week that it planned to appeal the ruling, noting that the reason the art was put into storage in 2005 was that the gallery where it was exhibited was falling apart, and there were fears the works would be damaged.

“In short,” Fisk said, “the court’s order [in March] results in the inevitable deterioration of the collection. Prudence requires that we appeal the court’s order to maintain the art in a manner consistent with contemporary conservation methods.”

From the Associated Press

Procol Harum singer wins suit

The lead singer of the British band Procol Harum won an appeals court judgment Friday awarding him the full royalties to the iconic hit, “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”

Britain’s Court of Appeal ruling for rock star Gary Brooker overturned a lower court decision granting the group’s former organist 40% of the millions of dollars in royalties from the song.

The appeals court agreed that Matthew Fisher, who played the haunting organ theme, was entitled to co-authorship but said he would receive no money from past or future royalties.

Lord Justice John Mummery said Fisher was “guilty of excessive and inexcusable delay in asserting his claim.”

Fisher, who quit the band in 1969 and is now a computer programmer in London, filed his claim to joint ownership nearly 40 years after the song was recorded and became one of the anthems of the 1967 “Summer of Love.” The record has sold 10 million copies, and Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the song 57th on a list of the 500 greatest of all time.

From the Associated Press

Penny violin sells for $1.2 million

A Stradivari owned by the first woman to play in the strings section of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has sold for $1.2 million.

Christie’s auction house said Friday that the 1700s violin, known as the Penny, was purchased for $1,273,000 by a buyer who did not wish to be identified.

The violin’s owner, Barbara Penny, died last year.

A 1729 Stradivari violin, known as the Hammer, sold at Christie’s in 2006 for $3.5 million, which the auctioneer called a record for any musical instrument.

From the Associated Press

FINALLY

Renewed: Fox has renewed its 12-year-old animated comedy “King of the Hill” for another season.

Name change: Reprise! Broadway’s Best, the Los Angeles-based not-for-profit theater company known for revisiting vintage musicals, has a new name. The group, led by artistic director Jason Alexander and producing director Susan Dietz, is now the Reprise Theatre Company.

Poetry prize: Tony Hoagland, a poetry professor at the University of Houston, has been chosen as the second winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize, an award for writers of great talent, but less fame. He will receive $50,000 from Poets & Writers Inc.