TELEVISIONFighting Over ‘Rights’: PBS is coming under...

TELEVISION

Fighting Over ‘Rights’: PBS is coming under fire from liberals for its continuing refusal to air “Rights & Wrongs,” the half-hour weekly newsmagazine anchored by Charlayne Hunter-Gault (“The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour”) and devoted to human rights. PBS’ top programmer, Jennifer Lawson, repeatedly has said that human rights is an “insufficient organizing principle” for a PBS series beamed to its 346 affiliates. That stance has prompted outcries from the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s new Rainbow Commission on Fairness in the Media and 39 members of Congress, all of whom have written to PBS to protest the network’s refusal to air the program. Also speaking out is Santa Monica’s Coalition Against PBS Censorship, which has launched a nationwide advocacy campaign to mobilize support for the series.

Local Fight Night: KCAL-TV Channel 9 will become the first local station to broadcast a world title boxing match when it airs Humberto Gonzalez’s bid to defend his WBC and International Boxing Federation mini-flyweight championships against Juan Domingo Cordoba. The Sept. 10 matchup is the “main event” of KCAL’s “Fight Night,” featuring three bouts live from Caesars Tahoe from 8 to 10 p.m.

POP/ROCK

Only Just Beginning: Herb Alpert, Rita Coolidge, Marilyn McCoo, Freda Payne, Paul Williams, Hal David and John Byner will join composer-arranger Richard Carpenter in “A Song for You,” a benefit gala celebrating the opening of Cal State Long Beach’s new Karen and Richard Carpenter Performing Arts Center. Although a limited preview season was held last spring, the Oct. 1 event marks the center’s official dedication and start of the 1994-95 debut season. “A Song for You” will also include a videotaped performance by the late Karen Carpenter. Proceeds from the event will go to the center, which was named after the singing brother-and-sister duo as a result of a $1-million endowment gift from the Carpenter family. Both Carpenters attended Cal State Long Beach in the late 1960s.

THE ARTS

Whale Walls: Muralist Wyland, known for his huge depictions of whales, will create two new murals in Los Angeles next week, including one on the east-facing wall of Hollywood Boulevard’s famed Mann’s Chinese Theatre. The second mural will go on the west-facing wall of Paramount Pictures’ Stage 29. The murals, which will be dedicated Sept. 12, are part of an eight-week West Coast tour in which Wyland is painting eight enormous “Whaling Walls” in eight cities, including one at the San Diego Bank in downtown San Diego. An earlier Wyland mural, at the Long Beach Convention Center, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest mural.

Brits Love L.A. Philharmonic: The Los Angeles Philharmonic was a hit in London Tuesday night at the Royal Albert Hall, where the orchestra appeared as part of the summer Promenade Concerts. An eight-minute ovation with cheers and foot-stamping from an audience of 6,000 elicited two encores. The program, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, included Witold Lutoslawski’s Symphony No. 4, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 (with soloist Emanuel Ax) and Sibelius’ Second Symphony. The Philharmonic, which went first to Finland--Salonen’s homeland--performs once more in London tonight, then goes to industrial Birmingham north of London, to be followed by engagements in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The orchestra is playing 14 concerts over 17 days in 11 cities on its first wide-ranging European tour under Salonen.

MOVIES

Modine in ‘Cutthroat Island’: Actor Matthew Modine (“And the Band Played On”) has been cast to replace Michael Douglas in director Renny Harlin’s big-budget pirate film “Cutthroat Island.” The Carolco Pictures film, which co-stars Geena Davis, had run into troubled waters after Douglas dropped out in July. Production is now set to begin in October in Malta and Thailand.

QUICK TAKES

Nashville’s Liberty Records has announced plans for a Beatles tribute album featuring a slate of country music stars, with a portion of proceeds marked for a country music industry retirement home. . . . HBO’s upcoming cable movie, “The Burning Season,” starring Raul Julia in the true story of Brazilian rain forest hero Chico Mendes, will open Brazil’s Banco Nacional International Film Festival today. The film premieres on HBO Sept. 17. . . . Two months after changing its format from soft rock to album alternative rock, KLIT-FM (101.9) changes its call letters today to KSCA-FM (for Southern California’ Album Alternative).