Will Ritchie Valens Have His Day at Last?

Will this be the year Richard Steven Valenzuela of Pacoima enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? We’ll find out Tuesday, when this year’s inductees are announced, whether Valenzuela, a.k.a. Ritchie Valens of “La Bamba” fame, is added to the Hall of Fame’s roster. He’d be joining such other ‘50s rockers as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and the musician Valens was touring with when both died in a Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash, Buddy Holly. Valens, just 17 when he was killed, has been eligible for membership since the Rock Hall was started in 1985, but has never been inducted. Why? Lack of longevity, for one thing. Valens charted only five singles, just one of which, “Donna,” made the Top 10. (The flip side was “La Bamba,” which peaked at No. 22). “Here’s a guy with one hit record, who’s been dead 40-some years, but he’s had his likeness on a postage stamp, they’ve made a motion picture on his life and he’s on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Tell me another artist with one hit who can equal that or come near it,” says Del-Fi Records founder Bob Keane, who originally signed Valens. Adds Keane, “There’s a little East Coast-West Coast [bias] going on. I’ve been here in Los Angeles for more than 40 years and we always had trouble getting respect for anything out of the West Coast.” The first Latino rock musician to win national success, Valens has long been a role model, and the Ritchie Valens Fan Club’s official Web site (https://www.geocities.com/~saborami) is full of testimonials. Keane, who is writing a book on the history of Del-Fi that will include a major chunk on Valens, says, “They’ve had his guitar on display in the [Hall of Fame] museum ever since they opened that joint, and the magazine they publish put him on the cover, so why is he not in it?” The other nominees this year are Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Bob Seger, AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Patti Smith, the New York Dolls, Brenda Lee, Aerosmith, Queen, Black Sabbath, Lou Reed, Steely Dan, the Flamingos, and Solomon Burke. The hall normally inducts seven artists each year. VH1 will televise the announcement on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

‘Felicity’ to Hibernate Until Spring

The WB giveth and the WB taketh away. What does that portend for viewers? If you’re a fan of Keri Russell’s “Felicity,” it means no new episodes until April, following Wednesday’s “winter finale,” a cliffhanger in which one of the supporting characters wields a gun at a Christmas gathering. Bouncing back ratings-wise in recent weeks, the show’s temporary departure makes way for the Jan. 10 second-season premiere of “Jack & Jill,” the Amanda Peet-Ivan Sergei romantic comedy that played to a meager audience when it aired on Sundays last season. As part of a planned maneuver, announced in May, that was designed to provide viewers with continual first-run programming on Wednesdays, the network will present 13 consecutive originals of “Jack & Jill.” WB entertainment president Susanne Daniels calls the strategy thus far a “resounding success,” resulting in a substantial boost among desired demographics that “Felicity” delivered. Over the next few weeks, the Wednesday 9-10 p.m. slot will be filled by “Gilmore Girls” (Dec. 20) and “Grosse Pointe” (Dec. 27 and Jan. 3).

Miramax Goes to the Year-End Whip

If this were a baseball game, it would be the bottom of the ninth inning, two outs, and the team at the plate needs to score some runs. The team, in this instance, is Miramax Films and, instead of runs, it could use some year-end hits to rescue an otherwise lackluster year. Dimension Films, the studio’s teen-oriented division, has had better luck. It had an unexpected blockbuster last summer with the raunchy horror spoof “Scary Movie,” which grossed $157 million domestically. And Dimension scored another hit with “Scream 3,” which made $89.1 million. But Miramax itself hasn’t come close to matching those numbers. Its big romantic pairing of Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow in “Bounce” has been something of a disappointment, grossing only about $30 million so far. “Reindeer Games,” which also starred Affleck, made only $23.4 million. Other movies such as “Boys and Girls,” “Down to You,” “Highlander: Endgame” and “The Yards” didn’t fare as well. But as it usually does down the home stretch, Miramax likes to save some of its best prospects for last--just in time for Oscar consideration. Miramax/Dimension will release five films before the new year. This Friday, Miramax will release “Chocolat” in Los Angeles and New York. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom (“The Cider House Rules”), the film stars Juliette Binoche as a traveler who, with her young daughter, arrives in a French village and opens a chocolaterie filled with irresistible confections that awaken the townspeople’s hidden appetites. On Dec. 22, Dimension will release “Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000,” aimed at the young male crowd (if not Oscar voters). Then on Christmas Day, Miramax will roll out three movies: Billy Bob Thornton’s western-themed “All the Pretty Horses,” starring Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz; Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Malena” and Roland Joffe’s “Vatel.”