Broadway going green

New York — The Great White Way is going green.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg — with the help of green friends like “Wicked” witch Elphaba — launched the “Broadway Goes Green” initiative Tuesday that includes plans to use energy-saving bulbs and recycle stage sets.

The aim of the campaign is to reduce Broadway’s carbon footprint, a measure of greenhouse gases produced by human activity.

Ten theaters already have replaced some 10,000 bulbs with more energy-efficient ones. And within the next 12 months, all of Broadway’s theaters will have made the switch.

“By this time next year, the lights on Broadway will burn just as bright, but the energy bills and our city’s carbon output will be lower,” Bloomberg said. “This commitment will raise the level of awareness for everyone involved in these shows including the audiences and that’s going to have an impact that reverberates far beyond the Big Apple.”

Under the plan, theaters will strive to use environmentally friendly materials in scenery; recycle and reuse props; and wash costumes in cold water and use rechargeable batteries in sound equipment when possible.

Updike wins special Bad Sex in Fiction Prize

London — It’s not quite the Nobel Prize, but John Updike has a new literary accolade: laureate of bad sex.

Updike, who has a long and graphic history of detailing coupling on the page, won a lifetime achievement award Tuesday from judges of Britain’s Bad Sex in Fiction Prize, which celebrates crude, tasteless or ridiculous sexual passages in modern literature.

The judges, editors of Literary Review magazine, said Updike had been shortlisted for the prize four times in its 16-year history. “Good sex or bad sex, he has kept us entertained for many years,” they said in a statement.

The magazine said it was attempting to contact Updike to tell him the good news.

The 76-year-old American novelist was a finalist for this year’s Bad Sex prize for his description of an explosive oral encounter in his latest book, “The Widows of Eastwick,” but lost out to British writer Rachel Johnson.

Johnson won for a passage in her satirical novel “Shire Hell” that describes a woman in the midst of a “mounting, Wagnerian crescendo” wondering whether “the Spodders are, as requested, attending the meeting about slug clearance.” Cats and moths also make metaphorical appearances.

Sentence of Fugees producer commuted

New York — President George W. Bush commuted the sentence of a former Fugees producer who has spent seven years in prison for cocaine possession with intent to distribute.

That means John Forte will soon be freed after serving about half of his 14-year sentence. He was one of two men whose sentences for cocaine offenses were commuted Monday night, along with 14 pardons granted.

Forte co-wrote and produced two songs on the Fugees’ 1996 album “The Score,” a Grammy-winning hit. As a rapper, he also released two albums himself, the second of which (“I, John”) included a duet with singer Carly Simon.

Simon posted bail for Forte at the time of his arrest and had urged for his release. Messages left with her publicist were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Forte was arrested at Newark International Airport in 2000, and later found guilty of possession of 31 pounds of liquid cocaine with the intent to distribute.

Most expensive new book arrives in NYC

New York — It’s billed as the world’s most expensive, most beautiful new book.

Valued at well over $100,000, a 62-pound handmade tome depicting the life and work of Michelangelo has arrived at the New York Public Library, fresh from publication in Italy.

The velvet- and marble-bound book will go on public display next Tuesday.

It takes six months to make each book, using Italian artisan skills dating to the Renaissance. The copy on display was donated to the library, but more than 20 books have been sold.

The book, titled “La Dotta Mano” or “the learned hand,” has a front cover made of white marble from Michelangelo’s favorite quarry, in Carrara. The binding is covered with a red silk velvet handmade by the same Italian shop that made the main stage curtains at The Metropolitan Opera and Milan’s Teatro Alla Scala.

The book is filled with photographs of Michelangelo’s sculptures and plates of his drawings, plus images of other creations, from the Sistine Chapel ceiling to his very personal poetry. The text is by Michelangelo biographer Giorgio Vasari, with an essay by the director of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci.

New trustee named in Brown estate saga

Aiken, S.C. — A new trustee was appointed Tuesday in the fight over James Brown’s estate, a move attorneys involved in the dispute say puts them a step closer to a settlement after nearly two years of litigation.

South Carolina Judge Jack Early said the new trustee’s first task will include reviewing a proposed settlement over how to parcel out the late soul singer’s estate and trust. Certified public accountant Russell Bauknight will also make a recommendation on whether the judge should approve the settlement.

Attorneys backing the agreement had asked the judge to remove the current trustees, but the judge didn’t go that far. Instead, trustees Adele Pope and Robert Buchanan will now take a limited role of “protecting and preserving estate” in part to help manage the more than 20 claims against it, the judge said.

Brown died Christmas Day 2006, igniting a contentious and public battle between his adult children and others making claims for a share of the estate.