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Conductor Jahja Ling will end six years as director of the Blossom Music Festival -- between Akron, Ohio, and Cleveland, the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra -- at the conclusion of the 2005 summer season.

Ling becomes music director of the San Diego Symphony this fall. He led the Pittsburgh Symphony earlier this year in Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, one of the highlights of the Heinz Hall season. Ling will return as guest conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall subscription concerts and at Blossom.

Although the festival director position itself was eliminated, Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Most will take over artistic responsibilities of the festival for 2006.

Eliminating the festival director position will save the Cleveland Orchestra $60,000 per year, but that was not a factor in the change, according to executive director Gary Hanson. The Cleveland Orchestra reported a $4.25 million deficit for the fiscal year that ended May 31. Its accumulated deficit is $7.4 million.

Compensation for the third year of the Pittsburgh Symphony's current contract with its musicians, for the 2005-06 season, will be determined by the average of the base pay at the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. All negotiate new contracts this coming season.

-- Mark Kanny

'Vagina Monologues' writer takes new work to Broadway

Eve Ensler is going from "The Vagina Monologues" to "The Good Body" -- and bringing it to Broadway.

The writer-performer's latest rumination on the female form will open Nov. 15 at Broadway's Booth Theatre for a limited 12-week engagement. Preview performances begin Oct. 22, it was announced Wednesday.

"The Good Body" deals with women's body issues, including what Ensler calls her own "less-than-flat, post-40s stomach." The solo show had a successful summer engagement at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

"The Vagina Monologues," which celebrates female sexuality while decrying violence against women, was one of off-Broadway's biggest hits, running for more than three years and touring around the country and the world.

Ensler opened "The Vagina Monologues" at off-Broadway's Westside Theatre on Oct. 3, 1999, and it ran there through Jan. 26, 2003, with the show performed by a rotating cast of three women after Ensler left the production.

-- The Associated Press

Made-for-TV movie focuses on American Girl dolls

The American Girl dolls are coming to life, thanks to Julia Roberts.

The actress is the executive producer of "Samantha: An American Girl Holiday," The WB's first made-for-TV movie, which will premiere Nov. 23, WB publicist Cathy Schaper told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Set in 1904, the movie is based on the popular American Girl dolls and their accompanying books. It stars AnnaSophia Robb, 10, as the title character, Mia Farrow as her grandmother and Kelsey Lewis, 9, as Irish maid doll Nellie O'Malley.

The movie explores the girls' different worlds and the challenges they face together -- including Nellie's snowy escape from a New York orphanage.

This isn't AnnaSophia's first time in front of the camera. She can be seen in the upcoming feature films "Because of Winn-Dixie" with Jeff Daniels and as Violet Beauregarde in Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

American Girl, a division of Mattel, has become a retail sensation. Along with the movie, the dolls have spawned several theme stores.

-- The Associated Press

'Nip/Tuck' actress leads Lamborghini road trip

Actress Kelly Carlson finally gets it.

FX's "Nip/Tuck" star got behind the wheel of a $330,000 Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster and led a caravan of 50 Lamborghini luxury cars on a 300-mile cruise up the California coast to Monterey this week.

It brought back memories of one of the show's most talked about episodes when plastic surgeon Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) is rewarded with a Lamborghini Murcielago after setting up a date between Carlson and another character.

"I've always thought about what it might be like to drive a Lamborghini, so when I was invited to take part in this event I was excited, especially after last season when my character on 'Nip/Tuck' was traded by her boyfriend for a Lamborghini. Now I know why," Carlson says.

"We thought it would be fun to invite her to test out the Murcielago Roadster," Lamborghini's North American chief Ehren Bragg says. "I've seen some pretty wild things done with our cars, but I don't think I've ever heard of trading a Lamborghini for a date.

"We thought she deserved a chance at a test drive."

The event was staged to celebrate the North American launch of Automobili Lamborghini's 2005 Murcielago Roadster, which will be publicly unveiled at Monterey's famed Concorso Italiano, a popular Italian car show.

The Lamborghini Roadster -- a 580 horsepower V-12 with a top speed of 205 mph -- arrives at dealerships this fall.

-- The Associated Press

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