POP/ROCKRecords for AIDS: Elton John is auctioning...

POP/ROCK

Records for AIDS: Elton John is auctioning his huge pop record collection to raise money for AIDS sufferers. John hopes to net more than $200,000 by selling his 25,000 albums and 23,000 singles to a single buyer through Sotheby’s. The London auction house is accepting sealed bids for the “comprehensive archive of pop music” until July 29. Proceeds will go to the Terrence Higgins Trust, a British organization that supports AIDS sufferers. . . . In a separate effort, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soul Asylum, Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, the Beastie Boys and PJ Harvey are among the 19 bands recording new songs for “No Alternative,” an album being released in October to benefit worldwide AIDS care, education and prevention.

TELEVISION

New Designs: Annie Potts already had moved to CBS’ comedy series “Love & War.” On Monday, the network confirmed that another former “Designing Women” co-star, Meshach Taylor, has been signed to be a regular in the new CBS sitcom “Dave’s World,” with Harry Anderson. But their one-time colleague Delta Burke has not landed a new series yet. She was approached by “Designing Women” creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason about starring in a show set in Washington, but she told Daily Variety that she rejected the offer.

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Ginsburg Hearings: KCET-TV Channel 28 will carry live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Hearings are scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. today and may last four days. C-SPAN will carry the first two hours live each day, then will air the entire day’s sessions on a delayed basis beginning at 5 p.m. Cable News Network is promising “extensive live coverage,” a network spokeswoman said.

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Rise of ‘Falls’: In what may well be one of the fastest turnarounds from conception to broadcast, CBS will premiere “Angel Falls” Aug. 26. The network ordered the prime-time series without seeing a pilot, purchasing it on the basis of five scripts written by Joyce Eliason, whose credits include “The Jacksons: An American Dream.” Filming began Thursday in Ventura County. The show stars Chelsea Field as a single mother who returns to her hometown and renews old passions. The cast includes James Brolin, Kim Cattrall, Peggy Lipton, Brian Kerwin and Jeremy London.

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Dan Would Rather Not: “CBS Evening News” co-anchor Dan Rather told television critics Sunday that he won’t apologize for a remark he made in May, which some have interpreted as being biased in favor of President Clinton. Rather had responded to Clinton’s wishing him luck in his pairing with Connie Chung saying, “If we could be one-hundredth as great as you and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been in the White House, we’d take it right now and walk away winners.” On Sunday, Rather said, “I am from a time and place where people don’t apologize for being patriotic and supporting the President--whoever is the President. I think my professional record is clear where I stand in covering people. Do I have an apology for it? No.”

RADIO

On the Airwaves: It’s potential headline-time on today’s morning talk radio route. Rodney G. King and his attorney, Milton Grimes, appear on Bill Handel’s morning-drive show from 7-9 a.m. today on KFI-AM (640) while Hillary Rodham Clinton visits Michael Jackson on KABC-AM (790) at 9:30 a.m. Joining King on KFI will be the Rev. Cecil L. Murray, pastor of Los Angeles’ First AME Church, the target of an alleged bomb plot by white supremacists. KFI’s new Sunday host, Mark Whitlock, who is also a staffer at First AME, co-hosts with Handel.

STAGE

Taper Record: The closing week of “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” Anna Deavere Smith’s one-woman show about the L.A. riots, grossed $138,877, breaking a Mark Taper Forum record for a regularly priced show. “Angels in America” still holds the record for weekly gross of a premium-priced show.

QUICK TAKES

Noted American architect I.M. Pei has been commissioned to design a $30-million museum of modern art in Athens that will house the international collection of the Vasilis and Eliza Goulandris Foundation. . . . American actor and director Sam Wanamaker was honored by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth Monday for dedicating 20 years of his life to the rebuilding of William Shakespeare’s Globe Playhouse in London. Wanamaker, 74, was made an honorary Commander of the British Empire.