A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

May 6 in a memo to the department 's antitrust division . The memo accused Ticke

tmaster the world 's largest ticket agency of exercising a monopoly over ticket 

distribution in this country and using that influence to keep promoters from boo

king the Pearl Jam tour . The memorandum , filed by Sullivan & Cromwell , a prom

inent New York law firm , said Ticketmaster has exclusive arrangements with all 

important concert venues in the country and uses these arrangements to `` cement

 control over the distribution of tickets to concerts . '' The Justice Departmen

t has begun an evaluation of the memo , and sent three officials from Washington

 to Los Angeles on Tuesday to interview music business figures , sources said . 

Such an evaluation is in some measure a standard response to such a complaint . 

It is preliminary to a decision on whether to launch an investigation . A spokes

woman for the Justice Department declined comment . Representatives for Pearl Ja

m also did not comment . In a letter to the Los Angeles Times , Ticketmaster vic

e president Ned S. Goldstein said `` Ticketmaster operates fully and squarely wi

thin the parameters of all applicable laws . '' Sales of Pearl Jam 's last two a

lbums together exceeded $ 137 million . Ticketmaster , which is privately held ,

 last year reportedly earned about $ 200 million in service and sponsorship fees

 on $ 1.3 billion in sales of tickets to concert and sporting events . ( Optiona

l add end ) The Pearl Jam memorandum is likely to focus new attention on a growi

ng furor over skyrocketing concert ticket prices and service fees , and the arra

ngements among managers , promoters and service companies that underlie pricing 

decisions . Ticketmaster collects a phone service fee for tickets to rock and po

p concerts , typically $ 6 to $ 8 per ticket , although the agency 's fee for $ 

350 tickets for Barbra Streisand shows amounted to $ 18 in some cities . Ticketm

aster pays a portion of the fees to maintain exclusive long-term contracts with 

the owners of the largest concert venues . In addition , Ticketmaster also pays 

a portion to some promoters , managers , agents and artists . In March , Pearl J

am sent letters to promoters vowing to perform concerts this summer only at venu

es that charged $ 18 for a ticket and no more than $ 1.80 for service or handlin

g charges . A representative of the band said Pearl Jam was seeking to keep pric

es in the range of their young fans . But sources in the concert industry said t

he group encountered immediate resistance from Ticketmaster and members of the N

orth American Concert Promoters Association , a McLean , Va.-based group that re

presents the nation 's largest promoters . In two letters obtained by The Times 

, Ben Liss , the executive director of the association , warned promoters that i

f they booked Pearl Jam under the band 's conditions , they could face possible 

lawsuits . Ticketmaster `` views the Pearl Jam issue as an all or nothing propos

ition , '' Liss wrote in one of his letters on March 24 . Ticketmaster chief exe

cutive Fred Rosen `` has indicated that he intends to take a very strong stand o

n this issue to protect Ticketmaster 's existing contracts with promoters and fa

cilities and , further , ( Ticketmaster ) will use all available remedies to pro

tect itself from outside third parties that attempt to interfere with those exis

ting contracts . '' Liss did not return phone calls seeking comment . After bein

g turned down by virtually every major promoter in the country for bookings , Pe

arl Jam postponed its summer tour .

 WASHINGTON President Clinton , concerned by a loss of public confidence in his 

leadership on foreign policy , said Friday that he has consulted widely but has 

rejected recommendations that he replace Secretary of State Warren Christopher a

nd White House national security adviser Anthony Lake . Administration officials

 had told the Los Angeles Times that Clinton was considering a major shake-up of

 his foreign policy team by the end of the year . But Clinton , in a telephone i

nterview late Friday , said that the root of the problem is communicating his fo

reign policy to the American people . And that , he said , is not the responsibi

lity of Christopher or Lake . The president said that he has talked with `` a hu

ge number '' of people about his foreign policy problems , perhaps more than 100

 , and that he could understand how some of them might have drawn an inference f

rom the conversations that he planned to change his foreign policy team . Clinto

n has come under criticism from some leading Democrats as well as Republicans fo

r apparent inconsistencies in foreign policy . Most recently , he was faulted fo

r his decision after weeks of semipublic deliberations to renew China 's most-fa

vored-nation trade status , despite the Beijing regime 's failure to meet human 

rights conditions that he had set forth last year . The president conceded Frida

y that he had made mistakes in the way he has articulated his foreign policy and

 that he needs to do a better job of that . But on most major policy issues , he

 said , he believes the administration has been on sound footing . His consultat

ions inside and outside the administration , he said , was about policy on Bosni

a , Haiti and most recently on China 's trade privileges in the United States . 

The interview was hastily arranged by White House counselor David Gergen , who w

as concerned about comments that other senior adminstration officials had made t

o The Times . At times , Clinton sounded frustrated by what he called the `` rel

entless criticism '' of his foreign policy . `` I 'm doing the best I can with s

ome fairly intractable problems , '' he said . Two senior administration officia

ls had said earlier that Christopher and Lake probably would be replaced by the 

end of this year or early in 1995 . Several other officials in the State Departm

ent and National Security Council had said that they had no specific knowledge o

f plans to replace their bosses but that the expectation was spreading that eith

er Christopher or Lake or both would be out of office by the end of the year . `

` It 's a natural response , when you 're taking a beating , to think about what

 you can change , '' one senior official said . `` The political people look at 

the polls and say : ` Hey , we 'd better do something about this . ' And , since

 you can't discard the policies that you presumably are serious about , you shuf

fle people around instead . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Clinton has suffered a se

ries of embarrassing setbacks in foreign policy from Somalia to Haiti and Bosnia

 problems that , in the public mind , have overshadowed his claims of success in

 Russia and elsewhere . The president has publicly defended Lake and Christopher

 when they have come under fire and aides in their offices said they believed th

e president still has confidence in them . Recent polls , however , have shown A

mericans losing confidence in the president 's management of foreign affairs and

 Clinton 's political aides are concerned that there may be an impact on his dom

estic policies and his reelection chances . Last month a Los Angeles Times poll 

showed that only 43 percent of Americans approved of Clinton 's handling of fore

ign affairs . And last week a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed only 40 perce

nt approved , his lowest rating since the crisis in Somalia last fall . For mont

hs , Christopher and other aides have been pushing for a shift in emphasis by Cl

inton , who had sought to focus on domestic issues and minimize the time he devo

ted to foreign policy . One official said that as a result of high-level discuss

ions that has followed the release of some polls , Clinton agreed to devote more

 time and personal visibility to foreign policy leadership . An early reflection

 of that shift , he said , was Clinton 's 90-minute appearance at a CNN foreign 

policy `` town meeting '' earlier this month . ( End optional trim ) In the inte

rview Friday , Clinton said that the nation is `` in a period of transition '' i

n international relations . `` We 've got delicate negotiations in the Middle Ea

st right now , '' he said . `` The secretary of state is involved in that and Ch

ina and the last thing in the world I need to be doing is to be considering chan

ging my team . `` What I need to be doing is considering changing whatever it is

 that is not inspiring people 's confidence in me and , if we 've made some mist

akes , we need to fix it . That 's what I 'm working on . '' If he does `` a bet

ter job of communicating our foreign policy , '' Clinton said , Americans will b

e `` much more understanding of what I 'm trying to do and that will give me the

 flexibility I need . ''

 WASHINGTON The Justice Department is trying to negotiate changes to a British t

elephone company 's plan to buy a $ 4.3 billion stake in Washington-based long-d

istance company MCI Communications Corp. , government and diplomatic sources sai

d Friday . The move to alter MCI 's deal with British Telecommunications PLC , k

nown as BT , is an apparent reaction to complaints that Britain unfairly blocks 

U.S. telecommunications companies from doing certain kinds of business there . `

` The negotiations are between BT and the Justice Department , '' said Jonathan 

Temple , a commercial officer at the British embassy . `` My understanding is , 

if they come to an agreement with BT , the Department of Justice will file a con

sent decree . '' A consent decree is a court document under which both parties t

o a dispute agree to certain actions . It was unclear Friday what alterations th

e department was seeking , or whether the British company and MCI would agree to

 them . The talks risk muddying relations between the two governments . On Thurs

day , the Justice Department took action against a British glass company , Pilki

ngton PLC , that it contends uses licensing arrangements to keep U.S. companies 

out of foreign markets . Temple said that his country 's Department of Trade and

 Industry recently wrote the Justice Department to caution against taking any ac

tion that would link approval of the MCI-BT deal to changes in British regulator

y policy . `` The government of the United Kingdom is keen to ensure that the co

nsent decreee , when it emerges , does not impose any second layer of regulation

 in addition to that which already exists in the UK , '' Temple said . MCI , BT 

and Justice Department spokesmen would not comment on the talks . But an MCI spo

kesman said that MCI lawyers had visited Justice earlier this week . MCI shareho

lders have approved the deal , and BT already has handed over $ 830 million to M

CI . But Justice Department Antitrust Division chief Anne K. Bingaman and the fi

ve-member Federal Communications Commission also must weigh in before BT puts up

 the remaining $ 3.4 billion . With the deal , BT would acquire 20 percent stake

 in MCI . The companies would divide their global business , with MCI selling to

 corporate long-distance customers in the Western hemisphere and BT to the rest 

of the world . U.S. law prohibits foreign investors from owning more than 25 per

cent of U.S. telecommunications companies , on grounds of national security . Bu

t U.S. officials contend that on the whole this market is more open to foreign c

ompetition than is Britain 's . Through its review , the Justice Department has 

leverage to address longtime complaints here about Britain . In the case of the 

BT-MCI merger , the Justice Department is exploring whether other U.S. firms wou

ld suffer a competitive disadvantage because of MCI 's presumed superior access 

to the British market , Temple said . BT , Britain 's largest telephone company 

, has virtually complete control over the price of connection charges it imposes

 on outside companies wishing to use its local telephone network to route calls 

in and out of Britain . The United States also is unhappy with British policies 

that ban foreign ownership of international calling facilites . AT&T Corp. has b

een trying to set up its own such network in Britain . The U.S. concedes that ma

ny barriers to foreign competition in Britain have come down in the past decade 

, making it the most open market in Europe . Long-distance company Sprint Corp. 

and several regional Bell companies have received permission or are already offe

ring cable , wireless and telephone services in the United Kingdom .

 WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has given up for this year efforts to con

solidate the four federal banking regulatory agencies , a key element of Vice Pr

esident Gore 's drive to `` reinvent government , '' administration officials sa

id Friday . The plan to bring all regulation of the nation 's banks , savings ba

nks and savings and loan associations under a new Federal Banking Commission was

 put on hold because of intense opposition from the Federal Reserve Board , whic

h objected to the administration 's proposal to take away most of the Fed 's reg

ulatory responsibilities . `` Even though we have made pretty good progress work

ing with the Fed , it has become increasingly clear that a realistic assessment 

of the legislative calendar indicates it isn't going to be possible to have regu

latory consolidation done this year , '' Treasury undersecretary Frank N . Newma

n said in an interview . `` There has to be a pause , '' a Fed spokesman said . 

`` But we hope that by early 1995 we are able to produce a joint proposal ( with

 the administration ) for Congress '' when it reconvenes in January . Both the H

ouse and Senate are working on regulatory consolidation bills , but the prospect

s for legislation have been fading fast because of the split between the Fed and

 the Treasury and lukewarm industry support . Administration officials said they

 do not want to take time and effort away from such major legislative issues as 

health-care reform and trade . Further , Congress already has two big banking bi

lls to finish : The House and Senate have each passed separate measures that wou

ld for the first time permit nationwide banking , and House and Senate negotiato

rs are working out the differences between the two versions . Lawmakers also are

 working on reconciling competing versions based on President Clinton 's Communi

ty Development Financial Institutions bill , which would create a network of len

ding organizations to serve minority and disadvantaged communities . Negotiation

s between Treasury and Fed officials , which have been going on for months , wil

l be halted because the two agencies need to spend more time on other issues , s

uch as what to do about regulating derivatives , a family of exotic new investme

nts that are largely unregulated . Industry officials said the foundering of the

 consolidation plan was no surprise . `` The Treasury tactically made two mistak

es that caught up with them , '' said Kenneth Guenther , vice president of the I

ndependent Bankers Association of America , the small banks ' industry group . `

` They didn't have ( Fed Chairman Alan ) Greenspan on board and the banking indu

stry was totally against them . '' Small banks `` will breathe a sigh of relief 

, '' Guenther said . `` People are comfortable with the status quo . I don't thi

nk they ever made a convincing case that the status quo was so wrong it required

 the sweeping changes they put on the table . '' Paul Schosberg , president of t

he Savings and Community Bankers of America , said Friday 's decision was `` ack

nowledging political reality . Historically , the political constituency for res

tructuring and reform tends to be pretty thin . '' Bankers were not convinced by

 the administration 's claim that its regulatory consolidation would reduce red 

tape and save bankers money , Schosberg said . Federal banking regulation is now

 spread among four agencies : The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency regu

lates national banks , the Office of Thrift Supervision handles savings and loan

s , the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. oversees most state chartered banks and 

the Fed handles all bank holding companies and the several hundred banks that ar

e members of the Federal Reserve System . The consolidation proposal would have 

largely taken away the Fed 's regulatory responsibilities , leaving it to concen

trate on its primary role of managing the economy . But Greenspan objected , say

ing that the Fed needs to have hands-on contact with banks in order to monitor t

heir health and make sure the banking system is running efficiently .

 The following editorial appeared in Saturday 's Washington Post : Maybe it 's f

rom seeing all those impeccably uniformed Marines snapping to attention all the 

time . Or from riding in too many presidential motorcades that can part traffic 

and force mere mortals to idle as you zip by . Or maybe it 's a simple loss of g

ood judgment . Somehow , for some presidential aides , spending too much time in

 the White House is very dangerous . You start to think you own the place and al

l that goes with it . That , at least , is what seems to have happened with Davi

d Watkins , who stepped down as director of the White House Office of Administra

tion after he and a colleague took a presidential helicopter from Washington to 

a country club near New Market , Md. , for a round of golf on Tuesday afternoon 

. The hour or so it would have taken to drive seemed just too inconvenient to Mr

. Watkins , who no doubt wanted to rush back to the White House to figure out ho

w to save taxpayers ' money . Friday night , the story got a bit worse as the Wh

ite House announced in response to queries that a second chopper was sent out to

 accompany the first . The military , the White House said , normally sends heli

copters out in pairs apparently even to country clubs . Mr. Watkins has a thing 

about transportation . Last year , he was disciplined for his role in the firing

 of seven people from the White House travel office . President Clinton , at lea

st , seems to have learned something about White House transportation issues and

 the damage control related thereto . By Thursday , Mr. Watkins was out of there

 , and Mr. Clinton said the taxpayers would be reimbursed for the golfing jaunt 

. In what White House Communications Director Mark Gearan declared was `` a gest

ure of friendship , '' 13 White House aides including White House Chief of Staff

 Mack McLarty announced they 'd contribute to paying the costs of the flights . 

Staff solidarity may be a fine thing , but we wonder what message this sends abo

ut the staff 's attitude toward such adventures . In particular , what is the vi

ew of Mr. McLarty , who is supposed to stop these things from happening ? The wo

rst of it is that Mr. Watkins said he had done nothing wrong and reportedly balk

ed at fully reimbursing the government , necessitating the staff fund raising . 

In his resignation letter , he insisted that his `` sole motivation was determin

ing how you could utilize Camp David more frequently , '' the golf club being ne

ar Camp David . His letter paralleled an absurd early cover story put out by Whi

te House Deputy Press Secretary Arthur Jones . In a statement , he described the

 helicopter trip as a `` training mission '' to familiarize the helicopter crew 

with the layout of the course . The golf game ? That was business , too : Mr. Wa

tkins and his White House colleague Alphonso Malden Jr. played their round `` in

 order to familiarize themselves with all aspects of the course , especially tho

se aspects related to actual time of play and associated impact of security plan

s . '' Right , and we propose to familiarize ourselves with all aspects of every

 four-star restaurant in Paris in preparation for the president 's D-Day visit ,

 especially those aspects related to the actual time it takes to consume a meal 

and associated impact on security plans of consuming several bottles of Bordeaux

 .

 WASHINGTON `` The Flintstones , '' a $ 45 million dinosaur that hired no fewer 

than 36 screenwriters and stars John Goodman , Rick Moranis , Elizabeth Perkins 

and Rosie O' Donnell , isn't just awful . It bombs itself into the Stone Age . A

s Fred Flintstone might have put it : yabba-dabba-boo . After faithfully duplica

ting the TV show 's familiar opening sequence in which Fred Flintstone ( Goodman

 ) knocks off work , howls for joy , slides down his Bronto-crane tail and foot-

shuffles away in his prehistoric car the movie suffers immediate comic extinctio

n . Leadenly directed and almost soberly scripted , it never captures the campy 

brightness of the original series the herky-jerky animation , the wacky sound ef

fects , the distinctive character voices and that cheesy laugh track . In the th

ird-rate plot ( and there 's no telling who among the Flintstone 36 came up with

 this gem ) , scheming boss Cliff Vandercave ( Kyle MacLachlan ) and his comely 

secretary ( Halle Berry ) promote unsuspecting Fred as a vice president , then f

rame him for embezzlement , intending to abscond with the ill-gotten profit . Fr

ed , enjoying a life of unprecedented luxury , is obliged to fire Barney ( Moran

is ) and watch his friend sink into poverty before realizing his mistakes . If t

he performers are imitating their cartoon forebears , it is barely apparent . Go

odman 's sweat-induced , growly offerings completely bypass Fred 's lovable , pi

gheaded innocence . The actor never attains Fred 's gravelly timbre . And with h

is blond-dyed hair and zombielike demeanor , Moranis seems more like a zoned-out

 Warhol groupie than Fred 's perky buddy . The greatest asset of Perkins 's Wilm

a is that Perkins looks the part . O' Donnell 's dead-on Betty Rubble giggle is 

the funniest thing in the movie , but it merely underlines how bad everyone and 

everything else is around her : The child actors who play Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles 

are completely forgettable . Fred 's pet dinosaur Dino , with its chintzy eyes a

nd unconvincing animatronic gyrations , looks like a low-budget Muppet . And eve