FIRST OFF . . .

Actress Vanessa Redgrave lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday seeking to hold the Boston Symphony liable for canceling a series of her performances in 1982. The high court declined to review a ruling that Redgrave could not collect civil rights damages for the cancellation due to the threatened disruption of the shows by groups opposed to her support for the Palestine Liberation Organization. The symphony canceled her contract to narrate Igor Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex� in Boston and New York. A federal appeals court in Boston ruled last August that Redgrave could recover, under her breach of contract claims, her performance fees of $27,500 and $12,000. But the appeals court ruled against Redgrave on the main issue of whether she could recover much higher damages under a Massachusetts civil rights law adopted in 1979.