Around The Arts

MTV plans new 'Wuthering Heights'\nNEW YORK -- First, MTV updated "Carmen." Now, the cable music channel is offering a modern take on "Wuthering Heights."\nErika Christensen, who played a high school stalker in last year's "Swimfan" and a drug-addicted teen in 2000's "Traffic," will star as Cate in a musical version of the Emily Bronte novel.\nMike Vogel will play a homeless musician named Heath with whom Cate falls in love, and Chris Masterson (Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle") will play Edward, whom Cate agrees to marry instead.\nChristensen, Vogel and Johnny Whitworth, as Cate's brother, Hendrix, will make their on-screen singing debuts in the film, which is scheduled to begin production in May in Puerto Rico, MTV said Monday. It's set to air during the third quarter of this year.\nA previous MTV original film, "Carmen: A Hip-Hopera," starred Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child in a contemporary version of the classic opera.\n93-year-old actress Karen Morley dies\nLOS ANGELES -- Karen Morley, the blond star of 1930's movies whose career was cut short in 1947 when she refused to answer questions at a Congressional hearing about her possible involvement with the Communist Party, has died. She was 93.\nMorley died March 8 at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills, a friend, Marvin Paige, said Saturday. Her grandson, John Vidor, said she died of pneumonia.\nAfter studying at Pasadena Playhouse, she was signed by Fox Studios and her big chance came when producer Howard Hughes selected her to play the blond moll in the 1932 crime epic "Scarface."\nMorley was put on a contract by MGM and starred in such early 1930's movies as "Mata Hari" (with Greta Garbo), "Arsene Lupin" (with John Barrymore), "Dinner at Eight" (with Jean Harlow), as well as films with Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery and Boris Karloff.\nSurvivors include two grandsons, a granddaughter, a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter.\nKnievel approves plans for rock opera\nLOS ANGELES -- Former professional daredevil Evel Knievel has signed over exclusive rights to allow the production of "Evel Knievel: the Rock Opera."\nJef Bek, a musical director and composer with the small Los Angeles theater company Zoo District, recently flew to Clearwater, Fla., to gain Knievel's blessings after working for two years on the project.\nKnievel, 64, said he instantly liked Bek and his seven-song demo and signed over rights to stage his story.\n"I think it's a wonderful compliment," said Knievel, who gained fame in the 1970s by jumping his motorcycle over cars and canyons. His daredevil career left him with 37 fractures, including broken bones in both legs, before he retired in 1980.\nBek, 40, said he envisions the rock opera as an homage to Knievel and to the musical spirit of 1970s bands such as The Who, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. Knievel inspired a 12-year-old Bek to become a stunt rider while he was growing up in Des Plaines, Ill., but Bek said he abandoned that dream after riding his bicycle into a tree stump.