COURIC SLIPS TO THIRD PLACE
By Jacques Steinberg

The New York Times
Published: September 13, 2006

On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
more evening news viewers chose to watch "NBC Nightly News With
Brian Williams" than the broadcasts of his two main competitors,
Charles Gibson on ABC and Katie Couric on CBS, according to
preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research released yesterday
by the networks. Mr. Williams’s program drew an estimated 8.3 million
viewers, more than the estimated 7.9 million who watched "World News"
with Mr. Gibson, and the estimated 7.5 million who saw Ms. Couric,
on her fifth night. All three programs were pre-empted in some parts
of the West Coast on Monday by President Bush’s address, and yet
Mr. Williams’s audience was still bigger than the average number
he drew last week (about 7.1 million a night), as was Mr. Gibson’s
(6.9 million a night). Ms. Couric, who easily won the ratings race
last week with an average of 10.2 million viewers a night, was down
substantially on Monday.

JACQUES STEINBERG

Stolen Munch Paintings to Be Displayed Soon

Stolen and recovered, the Edvard Munch paintings "The Scream" and
"Madonna" will go on view once more at the Munch Museum in Oslo in
the fall even before they are restored, Agence France-Presse reported
yesterday.

Because of enormous interest in the paintings, "the museum will
display them, in their current state, to the public and the media,
for a short period," a statement said. Both paintings were damaged
but "are in better shape than expected," said Jorun Christoffersen, a
museum spokeswoman, who added, "They will need some major restoration
work." A photograph, above, released by the museum on its Web site,
, showed that the lower left corner of "The
Scream" was crumpled, and that "Madonna" had a scratch and a tear
in the canvas. The paintings, stolen in 2004 in broad daylight,
were recovered two weeks ago. The police have not said how they
retrieved them. Before they were recovered, three men were convicted
of complicity in the theft.

Ratings Ride Coattails

President Bush’s 17-minute address on Monday night fell smack in
the middle of the second part of ABC’s contentious "Path to 9/11"
mini-series, with Harvey Keitel. But the thematic synchronicity, which
also extended to a 9/11 "Primetime" afterward, may have helped lift
ABC to No. 1 for the night, averaging about 12 million viewers over
all, according to Nielsen’s estimates. CBS inserted the president’s
9 p.m. speech into a lineup of repeats: "How I Met Your Mother" (5.9
million) at 8, "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (5.5 million)
at 8:30, and "Two and a Half Men" (7.6 million) after the speech. A
repeat of "CSI: Miami" (8.3 million) followed, propelling CBS to No. 2
for the night. On Fox, the interruption may account for some of the
drop-off for "Vanished" (5.9 million), which paled in comparison
with the solid audience at 8 for the serial drama "Prison Break"
(8.8 million).

That episode, which included the bloody death of the escapee Abruzzi
(Peter Stormare), led over all for the hour among adults 18 to
49. NBC’s "Dateline" (6.1 million) from 8 to 10, which paused for
Mr. Bush’s speech, could not compensate for a "Medium" repeat at 10
(4.8 million), which drove the network to a subdued last place for
the night. BENJAMIN TOFF

Turkish Novelist Faces Trial

A prominent Turkish novelist who faces trial next week for "insulting
Turkishness" says the case is the first to pivot on words uttered by
fictional characters, Reuters reported. The novelist, Elif Shafak,
above, a feminist who writes in English and Turkish, has been charged
in connection with her new novel, "The Bastard of Istanbul." The case
is being followed closely by the European Union, which says Turkey
must foster more freedom of expression as a condition of membership.

Ms. Shafak, 34, is scheduled to give birth during the week the trial,
set for Sept. 21, is to begin. She has been charged under a provision
of Turkey’s penal code that has been used against several journalists
and authors. Ms. Shafak said that to date the article "has never been
used against fictional characters." "In that sense this is a new step,"
she said, "and it’s quite surprising and upsetting, because if they
keep doing this, no one can write novels in this country anymore;
no one can make movies, even." In her novel, Armenian characters
make disparaging comments about Turks and refer to the genocide of
Armenians during the Ottoman Empire, a massacre denied by Turkey.

Bush ‘Assassination’ Film Acquired for Wide Release

Newmarket Films, the company that handled Mel Gibson’s "Passion of
the Christ," has acquired the distribution rights to "Death of a
President," the provocative Gabriel Range pseudodocumentary that
depicts the assassination of President Bush, Reuters reported.

Newmarket is expected to give the film a wide release in the next
few months. It was seen recently at the Toronto International Film
Festival and is to be shown next month on Channel 4 in Britain. "We
portrayed the horror of assassination," said Mr. Range, who said he
had received five or six death threats as a result of his movie,
which has evoked protests from some conservatives. "I don’t think
anyone would get the idea of assassinating Bush from this film."

Accolades

Britain will pay tribute to the Beatles in January when it issues a set
of six stamps featuring album covers from their most famous recordings,
above, the BBC reported. The collection includes "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely
Hearts Club Band," "Abbey Road," "Help!," "Revolver," "Let It Be"
and "With the Beatles." …

The European Film Academy will honor Roman Polanski, 73, with
its lifetime achievement award at ceremonies in December in
Warsaw. Mr. Polanski’s films include "Chinatown" and "The Pianist,"
winner of the 2002 Academy Award for best director. Mr. Polanski fled
the United States in 1977 after pleading guilty to having sex with
a 13-year-old girl. … Shi-Yeon Sung, a 31-year-old South Korean,
has become the first woman to win the Sir Georg Solti International
Conductors’ Competition, held every two years in Frankfurt,
Agence France-Presse reported. In the finale of the competition,
which attracted 500 applications from 72 countries, Ms. Sung led the
Frankfurt Opera’s Museumsorchester in Tchaikovsky’s "Romeo and Juliet"
fantasy overture; after being named the winner of the $19,000 first
prize, she conducted Beethoven’s "Egmont" Overture.

Footnotes

The opening concert of the New York Philharmonic’s 165th season will
be telecast live tonight to a large screen suspended in Josie Robertson
Plaza at Lincoln Center, where the performances of Beethoven’s "Egmont"
Overture, Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E flat and Beethoven’s
"Eroica" Symphony may be seen and heard free of charge. The concert,
led by Lorin Maazel and featuring the pianists Emanuel Ax and
Yefim Bronfman, will be broadcast nationally on "Live From Lincoln
Center." … A Yiddish-language version of the Neil Simon comedy
"The Sunshine Boys," in a staged reading starring Theodore Bikel and
Fyvush Finkel, will be presented by the National Yiddish Theater –
Folksbiene for a single performance at 4 p.m. Jan. 7 at Symphony
Space. Directed by Isaiah Sheffer, the translation by Miriam Hoffman,
which had its premiere in Tel Aviv in 2001, will be presented with
English and Russian supertitles. … The London-based organization
Lost Musicals will present what is billed as the first New York
revival of the original, full 1929 Broadway book and score of the
Cole Porter musical "Fifty Million Frenchmen" for four performances
at Florence Gould Hall beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday. It will also
be performed on Sept. 24, Sept. 29 and Oct. 8.