Quick Takes: TV reporter resting after garbled Grammys report

KCBS-TV Channel 2 reporter Serene Branson, who sparked a Web sensation with her live post-Grammy Awards report in which she had trouble forming words, told her bosses Monday that she was feeling fine and that her mangled speech was not indicative of a serious medical problem.

Branson was responding to concerns that she may have suffered a stroke or some other seizure while launching into a report outside Staples Center at the top of KCBS’ 11:30 p.m. news Sunday.

The reporter, who joined KCBS in 2006, was examined by paramedics on the scene following the report and was not hospitalized. She was reported to be resting at home Monday, with no indication from the station when she would return to work.

—Greg Braxton

‘Spider-Man’ defies the critics

The critics have spoken. The “Spider-Man� audience isn’t listening.

A week after the ambitious — and famously troubled — musical received some of the worst notices in recent Broadway history, “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark� reported that ticket sales had actually improved since the toxic reviews came out.

On Monday, according to box-office figures compiled by playbill.com, the web-slinging musical said it sold $1.33 million worth of tickets last week — grossing about $33,000 more than it did the week before the derisive notices were published. The show was the second-most-popular on Broadway, trailing only “Wicked� and selling more tickets than the hit shows “The Lion King� and “The Merchant of Venice.�

—John Horn

A new chairman for Music Center

The Music Center in downtown L.A. announced Monday that Kent Kresa would be its new chairman of the board of directors starting July 1. He will succeed John B. Emerson, who is stepping down in June following eight years of service.

Kresa served on the Music Center board from 1993 to 2006, including a role as vice chair for six years. He also has been associated with the Music Center Foundation’s Board, which manages the endowment for the Music Center and its resident companies.

Kresa was chairman, president and chief executive of Northrop Grumman from 1990 to 2003, and served as interim chairman of General Motors during its recent transition through bankruptcy.

—David Ng

Radiohead sets its album prices

Radiohead is releasing its eighth studio album, this time with a price.

The band announced Monday that its latest release, “The King of Limbs,� would be available as early as Saturday. Unlike its last pay-what-you-want album, “In Rainbows,� this one will have a price.

Fans can pre-order an MP3 download for $9 or a higher-quality WAV version for $14. For approximately $50, there’s also an extensive “Newspaper Album� that includes two vinyl records and deluxe packaging.

The band didn’t explain its pricing philosophy this time around.

—Associated Press

Egypt recovers some treasures

Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry has recovered some of the national treasures that went missing from the Egyptian Museum during the uprising that unseated Hosni Mubarak, the country’s top Egyptologist said Monday.

Items including a statue of King Tutankhamen and objects from the era of the Pharaoh Akhenaten went missing when looters broke into the museum during mass protests that engulfed the streets around the museum in central Cairo.

But Zahi Hawass, recently named minister of state for antiquities affairs, said in a statement that some objects were found, including a heart scarab and a small Ushabti statue.

Artifacts still missing include a statue of Akhenaten’s wife Nefertiti making offerings, a stone statuette of a scribe from Amarna and the torso and upper limbs of a gilded wood statue of Tutankhamen.

—Reuters

Finally

Renewal: Good news for ‘90s-loving, glasses-wearing, tribal-tattooed Northwesterners: IFC has greenlighted a second season of “Portlandia,� the sketch comedy series created, written by and starring Fred Armisen of “Saturday Night Live� and Carrie Brownstein, former singer-guitarist of the indie-rock band Sleater-Kinney.

She’s back: Roseanne Barr, who ruled the ratings in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s as the star of the sitcom “Roseanne,� will return to TV this year in a Lifetime reality show that follows her as she runs her 40-acre macadamia and livestock farm in Hawaii.