FIRST OFF . . .

A Paris court has refused a request from American media mogul Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting Co. that an independent French channel be allowed to broadcast the colorized version of John Huston’s black-and-white 1950 film “The Asphalt Jungle.” Director Huston’s heirs--including his daughter, actress Anjelica Huston--had filed a motion in June to ban the film from French airwaves, maintaining that Huston, who died in 1987, had always strongly opposed colorization in any form. The French court agreed late Wednesday that artistic rights belong to MGM and Huston--not to Turner, even though his company owns “The Asphalt Jungle” and the rest of the MGM film library. The court then issued a restraining order preventing Channel 5 from showing the film.