July 13, 1999
Web posted at: 5:09 p.m. EDT (2109 GMT)

• Attorney: Music execs to reverse 'payola' pleas
• TV station: Bad news about good news
• Green light: Cruise-Kidman vs. Star
• Forrest: Vocal and anti-segregation harmony

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- An attorney for one of two executives from the nation's largest independent Latin music label says the pair are expected to change their tunes in federal court.

Fonovisa promotion chief Jesus Gilberto Moreno and company president Guillermo Santiso have pleaded not-guilty to charges they paid radio stations around the country to broadcast their records -- an outlawed practice known by the industry slang term "payola."

But Charles Kreindler, Santiso's attorney, says his client and Moreno plan to plead guilty once their cases are consolidated.

The label's artists -- among them Enrique Iglesias and Marco Antonio Solis -- dominated Spanish-language airwaves in 1997.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Tennessee television station almost got into some payola trouble of its own.

The advertising sales staff at FOX affiliate WDSI in Chattanooga told businesses the station would broadcast three positive stories about them on its news programs for a $15,000 fee. "When an organization is involved with positive news coverage, that organization is looked upon extremely favorable (sic) in the community," read a promotional flyer from FOX-61.

"It's out of ignorance that this happened," says David Janecek, vice president for news at Pennsylvania-based Pegasus Broadcast Television, which owns the station. "They (station employees) don't understand the ethics of journalism." Janecek says the offer was taken off the table before any sales were made.

Asked how this would affect the station's credibility as a news organization, Janecek said, "It's not going to help."

Kidman and Cruise in "Eyes Wide Shut"

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A federal judge is allowing Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to proceed with their libel lawsuit against The Star for publishing a report that alleges the husband and wife needed help from sex therapists in filming "Eyes Wide Shut."

Attorneys for the husband-wife actors and the tabloid say a date for the civil suit is still months away and not yet set.

The Star's March 30 article was headlined: "We had to teach Tom and Nicole how to make love." It stated that sex therapists Tony and Wendy Duffield said they were hired to teach the actors how to perform in love scenes.

The lawsuit, filed April 22, says the Duffields have signed affidavits stating they were never hired by the film. The federal suit also says pictures accompanying the article represented commercial misappropriation of Cruise and Kidman's names and likenesses.

Phil Bunton, editor of The Star in Tarrytown, New York, says his publication stands behind its story.

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Helen Forrest is being remembered as one of the most notable voices of the big-band era. Publicist Alan Eichler says she died of congestive heart failure at the age of 82 on Sunday at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in suburban Woodland Hills, California.

She recorded more than 500 songs, with bandleaders Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and others. She recorded with Lionel Hampton's band in 1940, an unusual move in a time when white singers rarely recorded with black orchestras.

Forrest also made news in the late 1930s when she and Billie Holliday sang for Shaw's band. When some theater operators required the African-American singer to stay offstage until performance time, Forrest announced she'd stay offstage, too.

Forrest sang into the 1980s, rheumatoid arthritis affecting her vocal cords in the early '90s. She was known for hits with the Harry James band ("I Had the Craziest Dream"); the Shaw ensemble ("All the Things You Are"); and the Goodman band ("The Man I Love"). Her "I Don't Want to Walk Without You" became an anthem for women left alone in World War II.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.