The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 99

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USC University Park Campus Free Admission Parking $5 latimes.com/festivalofhealth 03EV100whd orders of more than 2 million units surpassing every title in the library, which encompasses to the and Exaggerated, almost operatic in feel, the story follows Tony Montana (Al Pacino), a former prisoner who arrives in Miami in 1980 as part of the Cuban boat lift. Unable to make it legitimately, he and his friend Manny (Steven Bauer) start selling drugs, becoming kingpins in the cocaine trade. The search for respect and power ends tragically, derailed by enemies and growing paranoia. The anti-establishment rags-to-riches story and unsentimental message struck a chord with ayoung audience, the filmmakers and social critics say. Many have seen it dozens of times and can recite Oliver dialogue goodnight to the bad to my little always tell the truth, even when I verbatim.

is an antihero with whom contemporary kids can says De Palma, who, nevertheless, shot down a proposal to replace Giorgio Morod- period music with an original hip-hop soundtrack. about greed, power and self-destruction in the land of opportunity, capitalism unfettered by morality, which they see all around them. The movie has become the the of this generation and Pacino is their References abound. The Los Angeles Shaquille called his clothing line World is a play on one of the best-known lines. Host George Lopez impersonated the enunciation-challenged Montana at the 2003 Latin Grammy Awards.

Blink 182, a pop-punk band, took its name from the number of times that character uttered acertain curse word. And the Geto Jordon, who adopted the handle is featured on a CD of songs inspired by the movie (e.g. Notorious B.I.G.’s Crack Is and Ice Bird in the released Tuesday by Def Jam Records. Jenna Coley, 22, tends bar at aDetroit club where the ripples of the movie are strong. For drug dealers, Montana is a role model, she says, and, for the rest, a source of hope.

we were young when it came out, everyone I know has bought the cassette or taped it on she says. is about family, being born to that life, is more of today. Tony created something on his own and is all about loyalty and honor Mafia ethics. one of our two or three favorite films, a portrait of the American Whether the video hit, which also features memorable performances by a young Michelle Pfeiffer and Mary Elizabeth Mas- trantonio, would hold up on the big screen was in question, however. Not until July, when screenings were held in New York and Los Angeles, were the doubts put to rest.

The response from a primarily young recruited audience, white, Latino and African American, far exceeded expectations. In particular, fanslapped up scenes of the cartoonish protagonist living the high life in every way, such as watching a white-nosed Montana slump into a pile of his powder, which was both tragic and comic relief. clearly withstood the test of time, observes Craig Kornblau, president of home video division. the were hooting and hollering, clapping and screaming and half of them, we learned afterward in the focus group, had never seen it before in Protests in Miami HOUGH he used the same title as the 1932 Howard gangster film, De Palma actually visualized as John of Sierra with cocaine substituted for gold. It got off to an inauspicious start: The violent and expletive- filled epic was greeted with protests and derision by Cuban community, which disliked its portrayal, and given an rating (since replaced by the NC-17) by the Motion Picture Assn.

of rating board. Bringing in three psychiatrists and a narcotics squad officer to testify in their behalf, the filmmakers eventually landed the more commercial started out to make an anti-drug film about the rise and fall of an American producer Martin Bregman recalls. where so many executives had a dish of white stuff at the entrance to their homes, either understand it or hated that we did That theme, however, struck achord with rappers such as Eminem and Jay-Z, whose lyrics are laced with drug allusions. Sean Combs Be Missing professes to have seen the movie 63 times. With its graphic portrayal of street life and the pitfalls of success, he says, a cautionary tale for those on the margins who suddenly strike it rich.

Though P. roots are middle-class, he relates to the notion of excess. Montana violated the maxim get high on your own and was brought down by his arrogance. young blacks coming up in the wound up dead or in he said in a DVD documentary chronicling the rise of the film in the hip-hop arena. was one of those cats that was scared For the last five years, USC professor Todd Boyd has devoted a lecture to the film in his course on hip-hop culture.

Gang- sta rap, which comprises the bulk of all hip-hop sales, took off commercially in the 1990s, he says. Artists such as the late Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dreand the late Tupac Shakur culled crime imagery from films such as of New and making it specific to their reality. did everything so Boyd says. know people who modeled their weddings after his.

And anyone on the bottom of the totem pole wanted to emulate Montana smoking that cigar in his sunken tub a sign of success and an in-your-face embodied in hip-hop. you are a young black or Latino male who came of age at that time, was a central component in developing your he asserts. Ferdinando hard- edged, pastel-colored veneer, moreover, paved the way for TV shows such as Michael the popular video game Theft Auto: Vice and a host of MTV fare. In her the video, singer Monica pays homage to a scene in which Pfeiffer, a girlfriend, descends dramatically in an elevator. was obsessedwith the visual metaphor, taking acrylic vi- brance to the level of Ludwig, the mad king of De Palma says.

caused Tony to remake the environment alittle better than God did. He created a deranged Playboy mansion and cocaine made things even more delusional. Visiting Miami two years ago, I found that design re-created in South Beach. Those art deco buildings, once Jewish old-age homes, had become Eager to contribute to the phenomenon, Island Def Jam chairman Lyor Cohen met with De Palma, suggesting that his artists compose a soundtrack, with or without Moroder. Though Bregman and even Pacino made the case for the proposal, the director was aghast.

said it would help promotion, presenting the film in a different the director says. music was true to the period, I argued and no one changes the scores on movies by Marty Scorsese, John Ford, David Lean. If this is the you say, leave it alone. I fought them tooth and nail and was the odd man out, not an unusual place for me. I have final cut, so that stopped them Kornblau given up on the thought of creating a and more relevant however.

Nor has Kevin Liles, president of Def Soul Records. hop, as Chuck says, is the of the Liles points out. it into aclassic like this would convey the current reality. The message, unfortunately, is as relevant today as when the movie emerged. be the first up to bat to re- score the film, which touched such a nerve in the Though Montana is Latino, all those kids identify with his job in the burger shop, idolizing guys with the big Benz and flashy women.

Music is the soul of any movie, and a new soundtrack would increase its Some critics have revised their original view of the film. is something else an authentic black comedy with red for blood, white for cocaine and that overall smeared look so true to David Thomson wrote in his new Biographical Dictionary of Film. has resonated the most of his 32 films, which include and Day Bregman maintains. Contemplating the 180-degree turnaround, he concedes, brings asmile to his face. speak at the producer says.

we never planned on it, the movie has become the bible of the hip-hop Seeing in light from Page E1 Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Sept. 8-14) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older.

Viewership is listed in millions. Program Network View- ersProgram Network Viewers 1 Monday Night FootballABC19.44 2 CSICBS15.83 3 NFL Monday ShowcaseABC15.30 4 WhoopiNBC15.14 5 Happy FamilyNBC14.67 --------------------------------------------6 60 MinutesCBS13.34 7 For Love or Money 2NBC12.27 8 Without a TraceCBS11.99 9 Dateline NBC 10 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS11.43 --------------------------------------------11 CSI (8 p.m.)CBS11.07 12 FriendsNBC10.99 13 Law OrderNBC10.89 14 60 Minutes IICBS10.47 15 King of QueensCBS10.35 --------------------------------------------16 Big Brother 4 17 Will GraceNBC10.12 18 Law Order: SVU 19 Without a Trace 20 Whoopi --------------------------------------------21 22 Still StandingCBS9.41 23 CSI: MiamiCBS9.38 24 Fear FactorNBC9.33 25 The O.C.FOX9.09 --------------------------------------------26 FrasierNBC8.98 27 CSI: Miami 28 Big Brother 4 29 ERNBC8.61 30 George Lopez (9 p.m.)ABC8.60 --------------------------------------------31 Funniest Home Videos ABC8.25 32 Yes, DearCBS8.16 33 Most WantedFOX8.11 34 College Football 35 My Wife and KidsABC7.97 --------------------------------------------36 of 37 According to Jim (9 p.m.)ABC7.71 38 of TV 39 Dateline NBC 40 Primetime ThursdayABC7.50 --------------------------------------------41 Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC7.49 42 CSI 43 48 Hours InvestigatesCBS7.39 44 Extreme Makeover (9 p.m.) ABC7.32 The West WingNBC7.32 --------------------------------------------46 George LopezABC7.12 47 10th NBC7.11 48 Paradise Hotel 49 JAGCBS6.96 50 CupidCBS6.88 --------------------------------------------51 Less Than PerfectABC6.83 52 World: Jurassic Park FOX6.78 53 8 Simple Rules 54 The Drew Carey ShowABC6.67 55 Blunderful World of ABC6.60 --------------------------------------------56 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC6.51 57 Extreme Makeover (8 p.m.) ABC6.27 58 The DistrictCBS6.24 59 The SimpsonsFOX6.09 60 Good Morning MiamiNBC5.94 sh 61 Cops (8:30 p.m.)FOX5.90 62 That ShowFOX5.77 63 48 Hours Investigates (Sat.) CBS5.69 64 BoomtownNBC5.58 65 Judging AmyCBS5.53 --------------------------------------------66 WWE 67 Outrageous Game Show Moments NBC5.48 68 Whose Line Is It Anyway (9 p.m.) ABC5.47 69 Paradise Hotel 70 NYPD BlueABC5.36 --------------------------------------------71 Whose Line Is It Anyway? (9:30 p.m.) ABC5.33 72 CopsFOX5.10 73 EdNBC5.08 The PracticeABC5.08 75 As --------------------------------------------76 HackCBS4.96 77 The FamilyABC4.63 78 The O.C. 79 RebaWB4.32 80 for a Network averages Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season. Network Last week Season to date CBS9.2911.15 NBC8.7110.43 ABC8.098.78 FOX5.618.68 UPN3.353.32 WB3.293.60 Prime-Time TV Rankings All four major broadcast networks had ratings highlights a week before the official start of the fall season, according to national Nielsen figures released Tuesday. CBS regained its spot as the top-rated network, overtaking one-week reign.It also scored with which nabbed its best ratings since March with its profile of Johnny Cash, who died Friday.

ABC had the top-rated show with its Night game between Tampa Bay and Philadelphia. The premieres of and landed in the top 10. O.C.” continues to build momentum for Fox, scoring its highest ratings ever in the key demographic group of adults 1849. Braxton Networks greet fall on a high note By Josh Friedman Times Staff Writer Even the most ardent fans of so-called reality TV must have their limits. Tonight MTV will put those limits to a stern test with the season premieres of (10 p.m.) and (10:30 p.m.), back-to-back evidence that not everything needs to be televised.

The drama on the third season of which will follow a Zeta Sigma Phi pledge class at USC, seems to center on time management issues, if tonight is any guide. The biggest hook on Season 2 of which will track the fellas from Delta Omega Chi at UC Santa Cruz, appears to involve whether gasp! an openly gay pledge and his would-be frat brothers can get along. Think of this as Girls (and Boys) Gone Boring. On six pledges move in together for several weeks to see how well they bond with each other and their potential new Sharifa starts out on the wrong note, showing up a half- hour late on moving day to the dismay of Val, the no-nonsense Carmen, who has earned the nickname for her ability to score points by gathering signatures from full-fledged sisters, has trouble finding the time, or peace, to study. Meena, a premed student who also is on three dance teams and a softball squad, raises eyebrows by ducking out of meetings early.

Over at the frat house, the brothers try a radical concept in order to soberly check out several dozen membership candidates: or a series of events without alcohol. After billiards, casino night and a session, the brothers will choose 13 lucky to get bids. Some of the guys are dubious of Keldon because of his remarks in the past, and afew question the sincerity of a gay man trying to crack their elite club. stock rises, however, as he meets the brothers and acts normal, using plenty of words like Still, after slogging through these two shows, you may think Keldon had the right idea about Greek life in the first place. Sebastian Artz ZETA SIGMA PHI: From Janelle, Salina, front row, Michelle, Meena, middle row, Carmen, Sharifa, back row.

TUNED IN Did sorority, fraternity shows pledge to be dull? SERIES An ordeal: Two former American prisoners of war detail their captivity in Iraq on Minutes (8 p.m. CBS). Crippled ship: The mission to find the deadly aliens attacking Earth takes a grim turn on (8 p.m. UPN). Spy games: As the government begins to question whether agent-in-training Jake Foley has what it takes, put to the test on 2.0” (9 p.m.

UPN). SPECIALS Here comes the sun: Host David Suzuki continues his meditative study into the interconnection of all living things on Sacred (8 p.m. KCET). SPORTS Baseball: Dodgers host the Arizona Diamondbacks (7 p.m. ESPN and FSN2); the visit the Angels (7 p.m.

FSN). Highlights The Early Show Jason Biggs; Michael Caine. 7 a.m. KCBS Today Haley Joel Osment). 7 a.m.

KNBC Good Morning America Dennis Quaid. 7 a.m. KABC Town Hall Meeting, with Gov. Gray Davis 7p.m. KCET Late Show With David Letterman Retired Gen.

Tommy Franks; Rodney Crowell performs. 11:35 p.m. KCBS The Tonight Show With Jay Leno Beyon- Knowles; Eddie Izzard. 11:35 p.m. KNBC Talk Shows TIPS FOR TODAY p.m.—The Treatment: Carolyn Strauss, executive vice president of original programming, KCRW-FM (89.9).

p.m., a.m.—Tales of the Texas Rangers talking to a bank teller on the phone, a woman overhears a robbery in progress (originally broadcast Aug. 3, 1952), KNX (1070). CLASSICAL 1-4 p.m.—Charles Andrews: Handel Music Suite No. English Baroque Soloists) KUSC-FM (91.5). 2-3 p.m.—Cost-Conscious Classix: Monteverdi Book Delitiae Musicae), KCSN-FM (88.5).

Radio.