Ned Beatty

"Prelude to a Kiss" is a wonderful play that has bee transformed into a dud of a movie. And the reason that it's a dud is that the transformation was incomplete. "Prelude" is almost exactly like Craig Lucas' play, which opened off-Broadway and short Lucas (whose only previous work on film was writing "Longtime Companion") wrote his own screenplay, scarcely changing a word, and Norman Rene, who directed "Longtime Companion" and who directed "Prelude" in its stage incarnation, resumed that role for the screen.

What reader of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" can forget Huck's last words to us?"I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt and sivilize me and I can't stand it. I been there before."The thought of Huck out there in uncharted territory still having adventures offered a kind of inspiration to some of us who have been all too adopted and sivilized.But that fantasy -- of Huck Finn forever young and sailing down the Mississippi on a raft -- is going to be a little harder to sustain for some viewers of the Disney Channel's "Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" at 7 p.m. Sunday.

NBC announced its fall schedule yesterday, and Barry Levinson's "Homicide" was not on it. Nor were "I'll Fly Away" and "Reasonable Doubts" -- two other hourlong, quality dramas.But while NBC was describing the latter shows as being outright canceled yesterday, the network indicated there might still be hope for "Homicide" to return in midseason. The Wednesday night show about homicide detectives in Baltimore was filmed on location here and added an estimated $700,000 per episode into the local economy, according to the Maryland Film Commission.

If Donna Leonard had her way, the Preakness would be as big as the Kentucky Derby.As if to celebrate the magnitude of her ambition, 50 huge hot air balloons will lift off from the infield at the Timonium Race Course between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. today.The winds from the Chesapeake Bay make Baltimore perfect ballooning territory, says Ms. Leonard, Preakness Celebration executive director."We're trying to draw in everybody, from the governor all the way down to the Boy Scouts," she says. The Boy Scouts, in fact, will take part in Bay Balloon Bash at Sandy Point State Park.

Maybe "Homicide: Life on the Street" is only the second-best police drama on network television, behind "NYPD Blue." But what a wonderful second it is.It's been so long since the last episode aired in January that I forgot how smart the dialogue was, how rich the acting is, how the show manages to play viewers back and forth between funny and profound, light and dark -- like maybe no show since "St. Elsewhere" (which was the work of "Homicide" executive producer...

Aida, Giuseppe Verdi's operatic take on love and loyalty in ancient Egypt, will be shown on the big screen Wednesday at the Charles Theatre, in a production filmed at Milan, Italy's famed Teatro alla Scala and directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Presented through high-definition digital projection, Aida is the first in a series of famous operas, performed in some of the world's premier venues, to be presented through June. Showtime is 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Charles, 1711 N. Charles St. An encore screening at 7 p.m. Dec. 9 includes an introduction by WBJC's Jonathan Palevsky.

REINHARD MOHN , 88 Chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann AG Reinhard Mohn, who helped transform media group Bertelsmann AG from a German book publisher to an international media company, has died, the company said Sunday. Mr. Mohn, together with his wife, helped steer the company into a wide array of publishing - including the acquisition of U.S.-based Random House - music and other ventures. He spent some 45 years with the company and most recently served as honorary chairman of the company's supervisory board.

THE CAPITOL Hill newspaper Roll Call ran a fake full page advertisement Thursday for a new holiday season movie.The copy says, "First there was 'The Magnificent Seven,' then 'The Dirty Dozen,' now the U.S. Senate in conjunction with the U.S. League of Savings Institutions presents a Constituent Services Inc. production of 'The Keating Five.' "The casting, by Roll Call's Craig Winneker and others on the staff, is inspired. There's Ed Harris as John Glenn, of course. He played Glenn in "The Right Stuff."

Los Angeles -- There just aren't enough courtroom dramas playing out on television these days, are there?The latest to be thrown into the mix is NBC's two-part movie "Trial: The Price of Passion," scheduled for 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday, and it's not all that interesting -- even for fiction.It's on a par with Danielle Steel for realism, but not quite as romantic -- a hokey, sex-filled soap opera based on improbable coincidences and cookie-cutter characters that's lifted only by a cast that includes Peter Strauss, Beverly D'Angelo, Jill Clayburgh and Ned Beatty.

Ah, the memories. Sitting down with the family on Sunday evening while Ed Sullivan trotted out the latest "innn-CREDible, simmm-ply FABulous" entertainment. Even if Ed wasn't a staple of your childhood (like, if you weren't even born yet!), tonight you can get a feel for what it was like with the encore airing of the great 1991 "Very Best of . . ." show.* "Diagnosis Murder" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- In the conclusion of the repeat that began last week, Dr. Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) is targeted for death after coming up with the evidence that has cleared a plastic surgeon's widow (Dyan Cannon)