DEATHS: Helen Kushnick, 51, former manager of Jay Leno and controversial figure in the late night talk show wars, died of cancer in Manhattan today...Greg Morris, 61, one of the first black stars of network television, who played the part of techie Barney Collier on the '60s hit series Mission Impossible, was found dead of unknown causes in his Las Vegas home yesterday...Bernard Jacobs, 80, president of the Shubert Organization--largest owner of stage theaters in the U.S.--and the producer of such hit shows as Cats and A Chorus Line, died in New York.
MILESTONES: Elvis Costello told a Los Angeles TV station that his current tour could be his last...The Recording Industry Association of America challenged a claim by Virgin Records that the Smashing Pumpkins' latest, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, is the best-selling double CD of all time. The RIAA started counting the sales of two-disc sets twice in 1992, meaning Mellon Collie's 3.5 million albums sold was doubled to 7 million. While there's no question it's a monster, having passed recent doubles from the Beatles and Michael Jackson, it has yet to top the 11 million in sales of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
BROKEN LINK: TV Guide and the Prevue Channel broke off their deal to bring an interactive version of the magazine to your TV screen--but other plans march on to market such a searchable program guide.
RETURN: Margot Kidder guests on the NBC sitcom Boston Common as an eccentric drama teacher on September 15. She also taped an interview with Barbara Walters to discuss why she spent three days wandering Los Angeles in a dazed condition in April.
SPOTTED: Big turnout of stars for the Venice Film Festival: Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Bacon and Jason Patric showed for the world premiere of their Sleepers. Hoffman, director Robert Altman, Italian actor Vittorio Gassman and French actor Michele Morgan will receive Golden Lion Career Awards.
PARENTING: Sylvester Stallone, 50, is the father of a baby girl, Sophia Rose, by his fiancee, Jennifer Flavin. Stallone has two sons from his first marriage... Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson have a new son, Daniel Jack Neeson.
GIGS: George Wendt from Cheers joins NBC's The Naked Truth, starring Téa Leoni...Saturday Night Live graduate David Spade will play a lovestruck guy who kidnaps a woman's dog in Lost and Found, which he also co-wrote...Faye Dunaway will tour as opera diva Maria Callas in the national company of Master Class, and may do the film version...KISS, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and LL Cool J will perform at the MTV video awards show...Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon go Out to Sea as dance hosts on a cruise ship in a soon-to-shoot film.
VOTE: The Democrats pulled a slightly better rating Monday night than the Republicans did on the first day of their convention in terms of the percentage of homes tuned in to the political show--but the actual number of viewers for the Republicans was slightly higher. Let's call it a tie.
DELAY: MSNBC postponed for retooling the launch of Wired: The Netizen, a weekly series to be produced by the publisher of Wired magazine.
SPEECH: O.J. Simpson speaks tonight at a Washington, D.C., church on the topic "Is there justice for black people in America?" Activists against domestic violence plan to picket.