POP/ROCKReunion Concert: Bruce Springsteen and the E...

POP/ROCK

Reunion Concert: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played their first show together since 1988 on Tuesday night for a couple hundred delighted fans at the New York club Tramps. The occasion was a video shoot for “Murder Incorporated,” one of four new songs on Springsteen’s greatest-hits album, which will be released on Tuesday. Between takes, he and the band kept the crowd and director Jonathan Demme’s film crew worked up with full-blast versions of a dozen other songs, including “Badlands” and “Spirit in the Night.” Springsteen, who is working on a new solo album, has no plans to tour in 1995. The video is expected to begin airing early next month.

TELEVISION

Danson Boosts Ratings: Ted Danson’s guest appearance on “Frasier” Tuesday night as Sam Malone from the old “Cheers” series sent ratings for the NBC comedy soaring 29% higher than the season average. But “Frasier” still fell a tad short of beating time-period champion “Home Improvement” on ABC, which finished one-tenth of a rating point ahead in the national figures released Wednesday. That’s as close as “Frasier” has come to winning this season.

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‘Dateline’ Backs Down: NBC News acknowledged on “Dateline” on Tuesday that it apparently was “misled” by a woman who claimed on an earlier program to offer evidence supporting Offord Rollins, convicted of murder in California. The woman, Esther Jean Smith, had claimed that she was with the victim two hours after Rollins was alleged to have committed the murder. After the report aired last week, the Kern County district attorney released documents that showed that Smith was in jail on the day of the murder. “It appears that Smith misled us,” said NBC News spokeswoman Beth Comstock.

MOVIES

‘Hoop Dreams’ Response: New Line Cinema, which on Wednesday took out full-page ads in both Hollywood trade papers asking for support in its petition to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Arthur Hiller to overhaul the documentary nomination process, had received 47 faxed responses by noon Wednesday. The petition--already signed by the likes of Michael Apted, Danny DeVito, Barbara Kopple, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Joe Roth, Jimmy Smits, Dawn Steel and Joanne Woodward--comes in the wake of the controversial exclusion of the acclaimed documentary “Hoop Dreams.” New Line plans to compile the faxes--some of which asked if they could write in “Hoop Dreams” on the Oscar ballots--and forward them to Hiller in a few days.

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A Box of Pudding: Oscar nominee Tom Hanks reprised his “Chopsticks” solo from the movie “Big,” jumping on an oversized cardboard piano before being presented with Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding theatrical award Tuesday. To earn the “Pudding Pot,” Hanks, who has been nominated as best actor for “Forrest Gump,” also had to play “Nail the Nominees,” throwing darts at pictures of fellow best actor nominees including Paul Newman and John Travolta. Last week actress Michelle Pfeiffer accepted the group’s “Woman of the Year Award.”

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Jane Alexander Talks to Hollywood: National Endowment for the Arts Chairwoman Jane Alexander will address the entertainment industry in forums tonight at 8 at the Paramount Studio Theatre and Friday at 9 a.m. at the Directors Guild of America. Alexander, whose controversial agency’s budget is being threatened by Republican congressional leaders, will speak about Washington’s current political climate as well as the relationship between the entertainment industry and the arts. The two-day event is sponsored by Women in Film, the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee, ICM, Sherry Lansing, the William Morris Agency and the Directors Guild.

STAGE

‘Shakespeare’ Stays: The upcoming “Forbidden Hollywood,” which had been advertising a run beginning March 11 at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, is homeless, at least for now. The theater’s management agreed to allow the Canon’s current show, “Shakespeare for My Father,” to stay after its producer, John Clark, threatened legal action. The decision “puts us in a pickle,” said “Forbidden” producer John Freedson. “We’ve spent nine months of planning aimed at opening around the Oscars.” He said he is “pursuing several very interesting leads” for a new home and hopes to know something by Monday.

QUICK TAKES

Garth Brooks’ “The Hits” album sold an estimated 145,000 units last week, continuing the country music king’s lengthy reign at the top of the Billboard’s pop album sales chart. The only new entry in this week’s Top 10 is Live’s “Throwing Copper,” which after 43 weeks of release, has finally climbed to No. 8, with sales of approximately 76,000 copies. . . . Actors Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman have adopted a new son, Connor Antony Kidman Cruise, who was born Feb. 6 and weighs 8 pounds. The couple adopted a baby girl in 1993.