ECONOMIC WOES DOG GETTY, OTHERS

The turmoil in the financial markets is hurting cultural institutions that have borrowed money to finance capital projects, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Institutions such as Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts have raised money for construction projects by issuing auction-rate bonds. But interest rates on these bonds have spiked in recent weeks as a result of the overall credit squeeze in the economy. The J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles saw the interest rate on its debt rise to 9.9% from 3%, costing the Getty $650,000 in the early months of this year. The Getty was able to reconfigure its debt into a one-year bond. Other institutions are now “scrambling to refinance,” according to the AP.

Staff Reporter of the Sun

TONY SNOW JOINS CNN

A former White House press secretary, Tony Snow, has joined CNN as a conservative on-air commentator, the television network announced yesterday. Mr. Snow was press secretary to President Bush between April 2006 and September 2007. Over the course of the previous decade, he was a regular on Fox News Channel, hosting “Fox News Sunday,” “Weekend Live with Tony Snow,” and other programs.

Staff Reporter of the Sun

RESTAURANT MAGAZINE NAMES TOP KITCHENS

For a meal at the world’s best restaurants, Americans are going to have to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Restaurant magazine yesterday announced the results of its annual restaurant ratings. Chef Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli in Roses, Spain, topped the list, compiled each year by 700 chefs, restaurateurs, and food writers. The Fat Duck in Berkshire, England, and Pierre Gagnaire in Paris took the no. 2 and 3 slots, respectively.

The highest-rated eatery in America was chef Thomas Keller’s Yountville, Calif., restaurant, the French Laundry, which came in fifth. Mr. Keller’s Per Se, in Manhattan’s Time Warner Center, jumped to no. 6 from no. 9 last year. The other local restaurants to make the list were Jean-Georges (no. 17), Le Bernardin (no. 20), and Daniel (no. 41).

El Bulli has taken the list’s top slot for the third consecutive year. Situated due north of Barcelona, on Spain’s Costa Brava, the restaurant is open between April and early October. Hundreds of thousands of would-be diners are said to apply to dine at the restaurant each year. El Bulli seats about 8,000 patrons annually.

Staff Reporter of the Sun

ART COLOGNE ENDS AMID DISAPPOINTMENT

A lithograph by Pablo Picasso, a collage by Andy Warhol, a painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and a sculpture by Tony Cragg were among the top sales at this year’s Art Cologne, where attendance slipped by 5,000 people. The fair’s organizers said this year’s event, which ended yesterday, had 55,000 visitors compared with 60,000 last year and 70,000 in 2006. As the number of art fairs escalates, Art Cologne has lost exhibitors and collectors to competing events in London, Basel, Berlin, and Miami. In 2007, the fair was moved to April from the fall to avoid coinciding with other events, yet the clash with Brussels shows how hard it is to find a space in the art-fair calendar.

Other German art fairs are also suffering: Frankfurt ended its two-year-old Fine Art Fair this year. DC Duesseldorf Contemporary, a one-year-old show, said in February that it won’t repeat the event this year because of slow sales. In February, Art Cologne announced it will scrap a sister event on the Spanish island of Majorca after just one fair.

Bloomberg News

DISNEY LAUNCHES NATURE LABEL

The Walt Disney Co. announced yesterday that it is launching a film label called Disneynature aimed at making wildlife and environmental movies for theaters. Disneynature will be run by filmmaker Jean-François Camilleri, who was among the producers of the Oscar-winning 2006 documentary “March of the Penguins.”

The company’s first project will be the 2009 film “Earth,” which is adapted from the popular BBC TV series “Planet Earth,” and examines animal migration patterns around the globe. Two other films planned for Disneynature are “Chimpanzee” and “Big Cats,” both of which will be set in Africa.

Staff Reporter of the Sun