Fatherhood for Roger? Sequel Rumors Abound

Rumors continue to circulate that Walt Disney Pictures is planning a sequel to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” whose spectacular opening last weekend made Disney history. Syndicated columnist Marilyn Beck reported Tuesday that Disney’s chairman, Michael Eisner, has set the summer of 1991 as the target date for the sequel, in which Roger would become a daddy.

“We have to start work in six weeks or so,” Eisner was quoted as saying. “Remember, we invested over three years in ‘Roger Rabbit,’ ”

But Walt Disney Pictures production czar Jeffrey Katzenberg dismisses the rumors: “There are no immediate plans (for a sequel),” Katzenberg said. “I only hope that we’re so lucky that Mr. (Robert) Zemeckis and Mr. (Steven) Spielberg will make us a sequel.”

Whether another film is in the works or not, people will definitely be seeing more of Roger. He and his fellow “Toons” are already a major presence in the gift shops. Among the merchandise licensed from the film: enamel pins, T-shirts, stuffed toys (including ones with suction cup feet, to stick in car windows), buttons, posters and “I brake for Toons” bumper stickers.

It’s a move from the small screen to the large for the Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. The creation of Sony Pictures, a new feature production division of Sony Video Software Co., was announced Tuesday by Sony Video President John O’Donnell.

O’Donnell said Sony Pictures will not only be providing its video parent company with product but will also be involved in feature financing and theatrical distribution. Sony Pictures’ initial release will be “Tiger Warsaw,” starring Patrick Swayze and Piper Laurie, a drama to be released in August. That will be followed in October by the thriller “Cameron’s Closet,” starring Mel Harris (from ABC-TV’s “thirtysomething”) and Cotter Smith. O’Donnell said four more pictures are planned by the summer of 1989.

Rudolf Nureyev was thrown one whale of a birthday party at the Metropolitan Opera in New York Monday--even though his 50th birthday was in March. A performance by the corps of children from Nureyev’s Paris Opera Ballet performed for the ballet star, followed by former colleagues Dame Margot Fonteyn, Mikhail Baryshnikov and the muppet Miss Piggy. The Met’s music director, James Levine, conducted the orchestra and soprano Jessye Norman sang a Mahler Lied while Nureyev danced the Maurice Bejart setting of “Song of a Wayfarer.” And naturally, New York Mayor Ed Koch made an appearance, presenting Nureyev with a crystal apple.

Elton John will hit the stage for the first time since 1986 for an AIDS benefit at the Century Plaza on July 8. Charlie Sheen and Marlee Matlin will play host for the For the Love of Children benefit, sponsored by the Southern California Gas Co., proceeds from which will go to the Ryan White National Fund, the Kids In AIDS national program and the Hospital and Community Services Program.

In addition to a full set with his new band, John and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin will get together after the 8:30 dinner to perform a song the pair have written for the event. Also scheduled to attend: Raiders defensive lineman Howie Long (national chairman of the Ryan White Fund), Rob Lowe, Goldie Hawn, Mitch Gaylord, Olivia Newton-John and newly victorious heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson and his wife, actress Robin Givens.

Prices for works by Vincent van Gogh continued on a roll Monday with the London auction of the painter’s 1887 work “Romans Parisiens (Les Livres Jaunes)” for $12.16 million--more than twice the $5.1 million expected for the painting. “Romans Parisiens” is the first painting Van Gogh officially exhibited at the fourth Salon des Independents in Paris in 1888. Also sold by Christie’s in the same auction was “La Maison Bleue” (The Blue House) by Claude Monet--for a cool $6.55 million--and a work by Marc Chagall, “Paris, La Grande Roue” (Paris, The Big Wheel), which went for $2.8 million. The Monet sale price was the highest ever for a work by the French Impressionist.

Rhythm and blues singer El DeBarge was hospitalized Tuesday after a man allegedly struck him from behind with a champagne glass in Carlos’ N Charlie’s, a nightspot on the Sunset Strip. The incident occurred at 2:30 a.m. during an argument, sheriff’s spokesman Eric Smith said. The singer was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was treated in the emergency room for neck wounds, Smith said. Deputies were seeking the unidentified assailant, who fled from the restaurant after the attack. The nature of the argument between DeBarge and his assailant was not disclosed.

And in San Juan, Puerto Rico, renowned salsa performer Hector Lavoe underwent surgery Monday for broken bones and other injuries suffered when he fell from the ninth-floor balcony of his hotel room. The Puerto Rican singer landed on the roof of the hotel’s one-story restaurant and his fall apparently was softened by padding on the air conditioning system, San Juan police said Tuesday.

Paramedics treated Lavoe and took him to the San Juan Medical Center, where he underwent surgery Monday. Lavoe began his career during the mid-’60s with another renowned salsa singer, fellow Puerto Rican Willie Colon, who recorded several albums with Lavoe.

Wonder Mayor for Motown? Don’t rule it out, said Detroit resident Stevie Wonder on Tuesday.

“I hope someday, and this is really going to shock you, (that) . . . someday I probably will think about running for mayor of this city, straight out,” Wonder said, during a show on radio station WJLB-FM.

Wonder said he is “very serious” but has no immediate plans to challenge Mayor Coleman Young, whose term expires next year. Wonder said he believes solutions exist to drug abuse, teen-age gangs and the breakdown of the family, but “people really have not attacked those problems.”

The National Academy of Songwriters will be saluting the Motown songwriting trio of Holland, Dozier and Holland with its second annual lifetime achievement award on Thursday. Recent inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland wrote and produced such hits as “Stop in the Name of Love,” “I Can’t Help Myself,” “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)” for artists such as the Supremes, the Four Tops and Marvin Gaye. The $125-per-ticket fund-raiser will be hosted by songwriter-producer Michael Masser at his home in Los Angeles.