POP/ROCKR.E.M. Dates Delayed: R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry...

POP/ROCK

R.E.M. Dates Delayed: R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry is ready to get back on the road following brain surgery in March in Switzerland, but not in time to prevent postponement of the band’s Southern California dates next month, the group announced Monday. Shows originally scheduled for the San Diego Sports Arena on May 7, the Forum on May 9, the Pond of Anaheim on May 12 and 13 and the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion on May 14 will be moved to the fall, with new dates to be announced soon. The U.S. tour, which was supposed to start May 5 in Phoenix, will now begin May 15 in San Francisco. Berry’s illness due to a brain aneurysm forced the cancellation of most of the band’s European shows, the opening leg of its first tour in five years.

TELEVISION

A Special Emmy: George Putnam, who began his career at a Minneapolis radio station in 1934, has been voted the 1995 Los Angeles Area Governors Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, academy President Richard H. Frank announced Monday. Putnam, a newsman and commentator and previous winner of three local Emmys, has appeared on various local TV news programs during his 44 years in Los Angeles. At 81, he still hosts a daily talk-back radio program, “The Talk of the Town,” on AM radio station KIEV. The Emmy, which recognizes special and unique contributions to local television, will be presented during the 47th annual Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards on June 3 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

MOVIES

Pieces of Hollywood: The 1940 Buick Phaeton in which Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman made their climactic drive to the airport in “Casablanca” is expected to be the top money-earner at Christie’s film and TV memorabilia sale in New York on June 28. The car used in the 1943 film is expected to sell for $60,000 to $80,000, said Christie’s spokeswoman Kirsten Schabacker. Other items on the block: the tablets from the Charlton Heston classic “The Ten Commandments,” with stage directions etched on the back, which are pegged at $30,000 to $50,000; John Travolta’s white disco suit from “Saturday Night Fever,” consigned by film critic Gene Siskel, in the same price range, and a bus bench on which Tom Hanks sat in “Forrest Gump,” $6,000 to $8,000.

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From ‘Baywatch’ to ‘Barb Wire’: Pamela Anderson, star of TV’s “Baywatch,” will try the big screen, playing comic book heroine Barb Kopetski, also known as “Barb Wire,” in a film of that name. “Barb Wire,” a bounty hunter and nightclub owner in postmodern Steel Harbor, will fight “diverse and colorful forces of evil,” according to Dark Horse Entertainment, the production company that also was behind “The Mask” and “Timecop.” Producers will be Mike Richardson, Todd Moyer and Brad Wyman. Director will be Adam Rifkin. Shooting starts in the L.A. area in May, with release planned for 1996.

ART

A Stroll in Venice: The Venice Art Walk, an annual benefit for the Venice Family Clinic in which more than 60 local artists open their studios and homes to the public for a self-guided daylong tour, takes place this year on May 21. Scheduled participants include such artists as Charles Arnoldi, Billy Al Bengston, Laddie John Dill, May Sun, Martha Alf and Woods Davy. Several concurrent events are planned, such as a silent auction of 350 works by artists including Red Grooms, Ed Ruscha, Lita Albuquerque, John Frame and Carlos Almaraz. Additional festivities will include three jazz and chamber music concerts in architecturally distinguished private homes on May 19, and docent-led tours to the studios of artists outside of the Venice area--including Gronk, Karen Carson and Tony Berlant--on May 20 and 21.

QUICK TAKES

Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson canceled out of an Everly Brothers tribute concert April 29 at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica due to a commitment to perform with the Beach Boys in Las Vegas that day. . . . Filmmaker Martin Scorsese will executive produce “Eric Clapton: Nothing but the Blues,” a blues concert by the Grammy winner filmed during a rare club appearance at San Francisco’s Fillmore last November. The 90-minute special will premiere May 10 on PBS. . . . Actress Demi Moore recently rented the 12-lane Mountain Sun Bowling Lanes in Bellevue, Ida., (pop. 1,275) so her husband, actor Bruce Willis, could celebrate his 40th birthday with friends, according to the Wood River Journal, a local weekly. The newspaper said the guest list of about 70 people included Geena Davis, Woody Harrelson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver and Christian Slater. Willis and Moore own a ranch near Bellevue. . . .ABC senior correspondent Jim Wooten was presented with the Joe Alex Morris Jr. Award for distinguished foreign reporting last week at Harvard University. The award honors the Los Angeles Times correspondent killed in Tehran in 1979 while covering the Iranian revolution.