Arts And Entertainment Reports From The Times, News Services And The nation’s Press.

TELEVISION

Arnett Reports Resuming: CNN correspondent Peter Arnett is returning to the airwaves, four months after nearly losing his job in the fallout over CNN’s retracted story about nerve gas use in Vietnam. Arnett has filmed six reports on the civil war in Algeria, where an estimated 75,000 people have died in political violence since 1992. “It was mutually agreed that we needed to let some time pass and find some appropriate stories for him to cover,” a CNN spokesman said, noting that the reports are expected to begin airing within a week. Arnett has been off the air since a June report on Operation Tailwind. He narrated CNN’s original Tailwind story in May that infuriated the military with allegations that U.S. forces used the deadly sarin gas in a 1970 mission to hunt down American defectors in the Vietnam War. CNN ultimately retracted the story, but Arnett’s job was spared because his role in the actual reporting of the story was minimal. Despite his respite from the network’s airwaves, Arnett said, “I didn’t have a sense that they were hiding me or anything.” Meanwhile, CBS’ Tuesday night episode of the military drama “JAG,” with a story line based on the retracted sarin report, drew the series’ best numbers ever, with about 17.1 million viewers. By comparison, only about 722,000 viewers watched the initial CNN Tailwind report.

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‘Rugrats’ Draws Record Audience: Tuesday night’s “Rugrats” Thanksgiving special on Nickelodeon earned the highest ratings in the cable channel’s history, garnering 3.7 million viewers. That’s great news for “The Rugrats Movie,” which opens in theaters next Friday. The Thanksgiving special, which beat all broadcast and cable competition among kids age 2 to 11 at 8 p.m., will be repeated Monday at 8 p.m.

THE ARTS

Space Available: Wondering why there’s “space available” in the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum exhibition “Sunshine & Noir: Art in L.A. 1960-1997”? The words “space available,” from a 1968 conceptual art piece by John Baldessari, are lettered on gallery walls as a result of the artist’s displeasure with the installation and lighting of four of his canvases originally selected for the show. The veteran L.A.-based artist said: “The works were so badly lit and crammed together that it looked as though [museum installers] were not paying attention. . . . I hope I made my point.” Hammer director Henry Hopkins explained that Baldessari’s canvases were intended to represent the transition between works from the ‘70s and from the ‘80s. “When he saw the installation,” Hopkins said, “he sincerely felt it didn’t do him justice.” Apparently, one viewer took the conceptual art piece too literally and offered the Hammer her daughter’s paintings to fill what she thought to be a void. The exhibition runs through Jan. 3.

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County Arts Grants: The Los Angeles County Arts Commission has announced a record of nearly $1.3 million in grants to 115 nonprofit arts organizations for fiscal 1998-99, up from last year’s $730,000. The increased grants pool came in part from new National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Council challenge grants made to the county, which in turn spurred $600,000 in matching funds from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. This year, the bulk of the money--$505,000--went to the newly developed category of mid-sized organizations, with annual operating budgets of $100,000 to $800,000. Previously, organizations were divided into only two categories, budgets above and below $200,000. Grants in all categories range from $1,000 to $140,000.

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Monastery Lets Women See Goyas: Spain’s Queen Sofia on Wednesday inaugurated a specially built passageway in a 16th century monastery that allows women to see nearly a dozen Francisco de Goya frescoes for the first time. The newly built corridor at the Aula Dei monastery, near Zaragoza, Spain, changes the monastery’s centuries-old ban on women, which had been aimed at protecting the celibate life of the monks. Previously, women could only view the Goyas after receiving special papal approval. The 18th century artworks depict the life of the Virgin Mary.

QUICK TAKES

The Spice Girls and Madonna picked up two awards each at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards taped in Milan, Italy, on Thursday. Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” was named best song at the awards, which air on MTV tonight at 8. . . . New York Philharmonic Music Director Kurt Masur is also becoming principal conductor of the London Philharmonic, starting in 2000. Masur’s London appointment is for five years, and the New York contract goes to 2002. . . . Funk singer Rick James, 50, who suffered a stroke Monday, was in stable condition and ready to be moved out of the intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Thursday. James is on blood-thinning medication and will soon begin a physical rehabilitation program to enable him to walk. . . . Eels’ sold-out concert at the El Rey Theatre, scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed, due to a death in a band member’s family. A new date is expected to be announced soon, with Saturday’s tickets to be honored then.