TELEVISIONTaking a New Road: The NBC summer...

TELEVISION

Taking a New Road: The NBC summer drama “Route 66” has come to an abrupt dead end after only two airings because of low ratings, but a new road at CBS has apparently opened up for the series’ rising young star, Dan Cortese. NBC had until last Wednesday to pick up the remake of the old 1960s road show for next year or else lose Cortese, the hot Burger King pitchman and host of “MTV Sports.” Late Wednesday night, Cortese reached a verbal agreement to develop a series on CBS. “We have no story, no co-star, nothing. But CBS would like to have a TV show starring Dan,” said his agent Ray McKigney.

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On With the Show: Vicki Lawrence, who declared herself “at war” with her producers when she left the set of her weekday talk show “Vicki!” in April, has reached a truce. The show will be back Sept. 13. “It’s been a roller coaster of a rookie year,” said Lawrence. “What happened was a breakdown in communications. I think what (producer Derk Zimmerman) and I have both learned is that we need to sit down once in a while and chat.”

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Madonna Does Milken: As one of her just-announced projects with ABC, Madonna is developing a four-hour TV movie about junk bond king Michael Milken, based on Fenton Bailey’s book “Fall From Grace.” The miniseries will be produced by Madonna’s Maverick Television Co., but she will not appear in the project.

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Still Kickin’: “Golden Girls” is gone but Sophia isn’t. NBC said Thursday that Estelle Getty, who portrayed the feisty senior citizen on its former hit sitcom, will reprise the character next season on “Empty Nest.” Sophia--who’d been seen last season in CBS’ “Golden Palace,” which was canceled--will “move back to her former Miami neighborhood and pay regular visits at the home of Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan),” the network said.

MOVIES

Pollock Times Two: Competing films about the late American artist Jackson Pollock are on the way. Actor Ed Harris and art dealer James Trezza, producer of New York’s U.S. Art-on-Film Festival, will co-produce a film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography “Jackson Pollock: An American Saga,” as well as interviews with Pollock’s artist wife, Lee Krasner, who gave up her career for his. Harris will play Pollock. And Robert De Niro and Barbra Streisand are slated to star as Pollock and Krasner in a story based on the Jeff Potter book “To a Violent Grave.”

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Coming Fare: “Les Nuits Fauves (Savage Nights),” the critically acclaimed film by Cyril Collard that won four French Cesar Awards earlier this year, is coming to the United States in November. Independent Gramercy Pictures will distribute the film in French with English subtitles. The largely autobiographical story is based on Collard’s book about a 30-year-old, HIV-positive, bisexual Parisian. Collard died of AIDS four days before winning his Cesar Awards, which included the prize for best film.

THE ARTS

Rescue Funds: The Garden Grove City Council voted 3-2 to award the struggling GroveShakespeare theater company $11,000 in rescue funds--double the amount recommended by the city’s arts commission--despite a council member’s charge that city money given to the Grove in April was mishandled. The remaining Grove board members plan to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would allow protection from creditors during a reorganization attempt.

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More Bomb Damage: The bomb that destroyed part of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery three weeks ago also caused severe structural damage to the nearby Palazzo Vecchio, home to the powerful Medici family in the 16th Century and the seat of Florence’s municipal government since the late 1800s. The damage, found Wednesday, affects the rich 1563 ceiling paintings by Giorgio Vasari illustrating the Medici history. The Palazzo also houses a museum with works by Vasari and Donatello.