MOVIESPapal Movie Reviews?: Call it the Catholic...

MOVIES

Papal Movie Reviews?: Call it the Catholic version of Siskel and Ebert. Starting Wednesday, the Roman Catholic Church will give its own “moral ratings” to Hollywood’s latest movies and video releases through a national toll-free movie review line at (800) 311-4222. “The ‘morally offensive’ [or “O”-rated] film is one that exploits sexuality and violence,” said Henry Herx, director of the Catholic Communications Campaign’s office of film and broadcasting, which operates the review line. Herx, who reviews many of the films himself, cited “True Lies” and “Die Hard With a Vengeance” as examples of such O-rated fare. Each review will also provide a plot synopsis and an evaluation of content, entertainment value and moral qualities. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, said supplementary rating systems by religious groups were a good idea, but noted that the MPAA’s rating system “is for everyone.”

TELEVISION

Hot Host: “Friends” star David Schwimmer will host “Saturday Night Live” when the late-night show returns to NBC for its 21st season premiere Sept. 30. He’ll be one of the show’s few familiar faces--in addition to several previously announced new cast members (the only returnees are Norm MacDonald, Mark McKinney, David Spade and Molly Shannon) the show will have a new director, Beth McCarthy (“The Jon Stewart Show,” “MTV Unplugged”), replacing Dave Wilson, who retired in May after being with the program most of its 20 years. “SNL,” which has undergone a massive housecleaning this summer, will also have 12 new writers to join five returnees.

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Fox Politics, Rooney Style: Emily Rooney, one of the news business’s top female executives and the daughter of venerable CBS News commentator Andy Rooney, has been named director of political coverage and special events for Fox News. Rooney, who joined Fox in 1994, was previously executive producer of ABC News’ “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings.”

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The Smells of ‘Melrose Place’: “Melrose Place” fans will soon be able to buy the Melrose Place perfume--an androgynous fragrance currently being shipped to stores nationwide. The unisex scent will be sold at leading drugstore chains, J.C. Penney stores and Sam Goody/Musicland record stores. The fragrance packaging and related ad campaign will feature “MP” stars Grant Show (Jake) and Daphne Zuniga (Jo) on a TV screen, locked in a passionate embrace. No word yet on whether the stars will take to wearing the Melrose Place fragrance themselves.

RADIO

New Place for News: Southern California gets a new 24-hour news station today. Starting at 3 p.m., a trio of AM frequencies--Beverly Hills-based KNNS (1260), Costa Mesa’s KNNZ (540) and the Tijuana-based XETIN (540)--will unite to form K-NEWS, which is being billed as an alternative to Los Angeles news stations KNX-AM (1070) and KFWB-AM (980). The new station is an outlet of Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters Inc., which also operates Los Angeles’ KKGO-FM (105.1), and boasts a combined frequency available “from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, to Orange County, to San Bernardino-Riverside, to San Diego, to the Nevada border.” The station also promises both traffic reports and updates from Bloomberg Business News every 15 minutes. Veteran newsman Pete Arbogast will host the morning drive slot, while Bay Area newscaster Dave Freeman will handle the afternoon drive.

ART

Getty Wealth in London: London’s National Gallery is the new owner of one of the world’s most sought-after pictures, thanks to a lucrative endowment fund given to the gallery several years ago by John Paul Getty Jr. The six-foot depiction of St. Michael slaying the devil, by the Spanish Old Master Bartolome Bermejo, went on show in the gallery on Wednesday. The work, painted in the 1460s, is believed to be the only 15th-Century Spanish painting available outside Spain. Works by Bermejo (real name: Bartolome de Cartenas) are rare, with only 20 pictures known to have survived. The work was bought for an undisclosed sum from the collection of the late Nicholas Phillips, the Duke of Edinburgh’s godson, whose father, South African industrialist Sir Julius Wernher, was a world-renowned collector with an eye for Rembrandt and Rubens.

QUICK TAKES

“Stomp,” the percussion-based troupe that opens a six-week stand at UCLA’s Veterans Wadsworth Theater on Tuesday, will stage a free preview performance at Universal CityWalk’s Center Court tonight at 7. . . . “Rush Limbaugh” joins KCAL-TV Channel 9’s late-night lineup Sept. 11. The conservative “talkmeister” moves from 6:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., followed by the new “Lauren Hutton and . . . “ at 1:30 a.m. . . . Singers Carly Simon and James Taylor--who were divorced in 1981--appeared onstage together Wednesday for the first time in 16 years. Their benefit concert on Martha’s Vineyard raised $200,000 for the local Agricultural Society. . . . Cuban-born celebrities Gloria Estefan and Andy Garcia returned to their homeland Wednesday to entertain about 16,000 Cuban refugees held at a U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay.