Quick Takes - March 2, 2012

Money raised for Titian

Two major British art galleries have raised 45 million pounds ($72 million) to buy a Renaissance masterpiece that has been in the United Kingdom for 200 years and keep it on public display — a purchase announced Thursday as a substantial cultural victory in tough economic times.

Britain’s National Gallery contributed nearly $40 million to buy Titian’s “Diana and Callisto,” which it will own jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland. The rest of the money came from an art charity, lottery profits and private donors.

The purchase from the Duke of Sutherland means the painting will be reunited with its companion piece, “Diana and Actaeon,” which the galleries bought for nearly $80 million in 2009.

The prices are only about one-third of what the paintings have been estimated to be worth on the open market.

—Associated Press

Bristol Palin gets reality TV show

Bristol Palin’s home life in Alaska is the subject of a reality series starring the daughter of former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Lifetime says it will run 10 episodes of “Bristol Palin: Life’s a Tripp” this year. The series will explore the pressures of raising her toddler son, Tripp, as she maintains her close relationship with the larger Palin clan, the network said.

—Associated Press

Pitt and Clooney to appear in ‘8’

Brad Pitt will wield a gavel in the gay-marriage battle, playing a federal judge in the play “8,” which will have its L.A. premiere in a one-night reading Saturday at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

Pitt joins his pal George Clooney and several other celebrities for the benefit event, which will be streamed live on YouTube.

The play “8” by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black is based on the court case that sought to overturn Prop. 8, the 2008 ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in California.

—David Ng

Lineup is set for Policeman’s Ball

The Secret Policeman’s Ball will cross the Atlantic for the first U.S. edition of the ongoing series of fundraisers for Amnesty International with a big-name comedy and music lineup set for Sunday in New York City.

The event will be carried live on the EPIX cable channel and also streamed live at EpixHD.com.

On the comedy front, the show marking Amnesty’s 50th anniversary this year will include Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, Sarah Silverman, Fred Armisen and several more, while Coldplay and Mumford & Sons will help out on the music side.

This will be the 11th edition of the event born in 1976 in England and inspired in large part by George Harrison’s archetypal all-star rock music benefit, the Concert for Bangladesh five years earlier at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.

—Randy Lewis