Around the arts

'Taken' takes a record audience\nNEW YORK -- Sci Fi Channel's 20-hour miniseries, "Taken,'' took a big first step Monday when its opener logged a record-breaking audience for the network. \nThe two-hour premiere drew more than 6 million viewers, exceeding Sci Fi's previous record ("Frank Herbert's Dune, Part 1'' two years ago) by more than 25 percent. It was also the highest-rated show on basic cable for the night in households. \nThough the second "Taken'' installment, which aired Tuesday, fell to 4.8 million viewers, that's still more than four times the average audience Sci Fi attracts. \nWith Steven Spielberg as its guiding hand, the miniseries dramatizes five decades of alien-abduction and UFO mythology. The budget was a reported $40 million. It continues through Friday, then next Monday through Friday. \nStarted in 1992, Sci Fi Network is available to 80 million cable homes.\nIrish writer receives honorary knighthood\nLONDON -- Irish author William Trevor received an honorary knighthood for his services to literature. \nIn presenting the award Wednesday, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said Trevor -- a prolific writer of novels and short stories -- "has produced an enormous body of work over nearly 40 years and won many of the most prestigious literary awards.'' \nTrevor's novels include The Old Boys, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, The Children of Dynmouth and Fools of Fortune, which both won the Whitbread Fiction Award, and Felicia's Journey, named Whitbread Book of the Year. \nHis most recent collection of short stories, "The Hill Bachelors,'' won both the Macmillan Silver Pen Award and the Irish Times Literature prize. \nIn 1977, Trevor was made an honorary Commander of the British Empire, or CBE, and in 1999, he received the prestigious David Cohen British Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement. \nAlthough he's lived in Britain since the 1950s, he remains an Irish citizen and therefore takes an honorary knighthood.\n'Chilli': TLC more than single member\nNEW YORK -- Rozonda "Chilli'' Thomas says one reason Grammy-winning TLC is one of the best-selling female groups of all time is because they don't revolve around one prominent member. \n"They often compare us to The Supremes,'' but they were "all about Diana Ross,'' Thomas told The Associated Press in a recent interview. \n"With Destiny's Child, it's about Beyonce (Knowles), everybody knows that,'' the 31-year-old singer said. "And 3LW, you don't really care if they replace a member or not.'' \nThomas said TLC has always treated one another like family. \n"If I get into it with my sister who is not my biological sister…I'm not going to contemplate if I want her in my life or not,'' she said. "She's there for good, and we just have to stick it out, so that's how we are.'' \nTLC recently released "3D,'' their fourth -- and possibly last -- album. Thomas and Tionne "T-Boz'' Watkins, 32, finished the disc after the death of Lisa "Left Eye'' Lopes in April. The 30-year-old Lopes had worked on the album before her fatal car accident in Honduras, and her voice is featured on the disc. \nThomas has said Lopes won't be replaced.