Newsday from New York, New York • 6

Network eyes 42nd St for entertainment complex Cameras Rolling Here Again Page A39 By Robin Schatz and David Heniy STAFF WRITERS Move over Mickey Mouse Beavis and Butt-head are coming MTV Network confirmed yesterday that it's eyeing three historic theaters in Times Square to build an MTV studio and entertainment complex across the street from the landmark New Amsterdam Theater where the Walt Disney Co is proposing a $30-million renovation MTV owned by Viacom Inc and based at nearby 45th Street and Broadway said yesterday it has taken a six-month option to decide whether to lease the theaters on the north side of 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues The New 42nd Street Inc a not-for-profit group holds a 99-year lease to the properties and is expected to make a joint announcement with MTV in the next few weeks have lots of discussions yet to crane but their interest is very said Cora Cahan president of the-mill theater prqject There will be Borne nice inter-esting Another source familiar with the Times Square area speculated Viacom might develop a sidewalk studio The theaters hark to when the block was part of a flourishing theater district Two of the theaters the Apollo later renamed the Academy Theater and the Times Square Theater were built in 1920 The Lyric Theater dates back to 1903 The Academy is still used for concerts while the other two are shuttered MTV interest comes just as the area is beginning to buzz with the excitement of other annonnemi rwdwvwl-npment projects involving the entertainment industry The throe theaters are located next to the Victory Theater which is being renovated by Cahan 's group to serve as a theater and down the street from another recently announced pfqject to build a Virgin Mega Store a Sony theater complex and a sports bar and restaurant in the Bertelsmann AG Building on 45th Street and Broadway the organization created by the city and state several years ago and governed by a private board of directors York City is the music capital of the world and MTV on 42nd Street could be very Few details were available yesterday on MTVs plans for the property In fact MTV had not planned to announce anything for several weeks But Viacom chief executive Frank Biondi nam mentioned the project yesterday after a breakfast speech before the Association for a Better New York A source familiar with the plans said MTV was planning a entertainment retail and production with a youthful The company wants to create something that would utilize the theaters and draw tourists to the neighborhood the source said not going to be your run-of- iREMEMBERlMgLlKEiTHISjl Elephants: Rudy Get Off High Donkey By Bob Liff STAFF WHITER State Republican leaders offered a zoological reminder as Mayor Rudolph Giuliani continued a drumbeat of criticism at state Sen George Pataki's GOP gubernatorial campaign Elephants have long memories have to tell you the Republican Party was there for Rudy Giuliani in his campaign mid one of the things that is important in this business is Monroe County Executive Bob King said from Rochester In Elmira Chemung County GOP leader Donna Draxler said party activists believe Giuliani is games kind of disappointed he taking more of a direct stand for the Republican And Erie GOP leader Assemb Tom Reynolds said county leaders admire Giuliani but an endorsement bring about even greater respect" Reynolds held out hope Giuliani would back Pataki add- ing much rather see the endorsement in October than in September or August If support for President Bill 1 crime bill raised Republican eyebrows his praise for Democratic Gov Mario Cuomo has anragaH party activists And Giuliani has pounded Pataki for a of specifics on how he would help the dty Cuomo said last week that Giuliani could best help the dty by backing him advice Giuliani rejected as self-- serving: Giuliani says he worries little about politics including whom to endorse for governor get elected in a narrowly partisan Giuliani said therefore it would seem to me I would be turning my back on what Ipromised if I function that He brushed off attacks by GOP Staten Island Bor- Wasn9t'Real Me THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Paris Brigitte Bardot who turns 60 today wants to be remembered as an animal activist instead of a movie star The French actress retired in 1973 having nmk 48 films in 21 years including the one that mada her famous God Created In the past two decades her name has become synonymous in France with a crusade to prevent animal cruelty She has helped ban ivory imports rescued baby seals from daughter and saved horses from becoming hamburger meat woman who made those movies not me someone else" she told Jeffrey Robinson author of a biography published this week in Britain and France Two portrays Bardot as a free-spirited teen-ager who is molded into a sexpot by Roger Vadim her first husband Hie book will be published in the United States in the spring hove nothing to do with her or that entire period of her Bardot told Robinson life today is only about animals Nothing cams before is Please sea REPUBLICANS qn Page A21 laJtur a hot jyjL'oO ilinum XRS'ib bed njJxAT fenaq Uii bJaa cS loJ-jynLi UlVi alJiTimoa v-iwi bu vd -ii 1 (JiJauiSiUld Ariibuul nc vfi luuil wad IIiv Aw eurmaV.