ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

TELEVISION & MOVIE

Anti-Kazan Fervor: Critics of the decision to award Elia Kazan a lifetime achievement Oscar plan to distribute letters of protest at Saturday’s Writers Guild Awards. The 89-year-old director offered up names of colleagues during the House Un-American Activities Committee’s probe of communism in the 1950s. Two blacklisted screenwriters, Bernard Gordon (who wrote the original film version of “The Thin Red Line”) and writer-director Abraham Polonsky (“Body and Soul”), say they would drop the action if Kazan got on stage to acknowledge his mistake. The Committee Against Silence is asking celebrities to sit on their hands when the director is introduced at the Academy Awards. “It’s vital for audiences around the world to see that there are some in Hollywood who do not support blacklisting, who do not support informers,” Gordon says.

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Zippergate Continued: At least some viewers are still interested in the sex and impeachment saga that has gripped Washington for the last year. Larry King’s Monday interview with Linda Tripp was CNN’s highest-rated program of the year, seen by an estimated 2.5 million households--double the average ratings a year ago. NBC’s “Today” show also got a bump for its Friday interview with Tripp, attracting 5.5% of the nation’s TV households, up from an average 5.1% the week earlier. . . . Meanwhile, Monica Lewinsky’s personal trainer has stepped forward to claim her 15 minutes of fame. Kacy Duke said she secretly worked with the presidential paramour in the gym in her son’s bedroom to help her slim down for her grand jury appearances. Though Duke generally charges between $225 and $350 for a multi-hour session, she took on Lewinsky pro bono. “A lot of it is giving back karma,” Duke told the Washington Post on Wednesday. But if Lewinsky’s book makes lots of money and she wanted to reward her, Duke added, “I wouldn’t turn it down.”

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More “Foto-Novelas”: Producer Carlos Avila will be reviving his popular “Foto-Novelas” series for public television after receiving a commitment from PBS and the Corp. for Public Broadcasting to provide one-third of the project’s production costs. The series of four half-hour programs, which will run in two hourlong blocks, won’t be completed until next year, however, as Avila will begin production on a New Line Cinema film starring Jimmy Smits in April. Inspired by melodramatic comic book genres popular in Latin America, “Foto-Novelas,” which first ran in October 1997, incorporates fantasy, magical realism and science fiction to address Latino issues.

STAGE

Not O-K (L-A-H-O-M-A): Plans to bring the hit London revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” to Broadway are on hold after Actors’ Equity decided Wednesday to bar producer Cameron Mackintosh from importing the British cast. Mackintosh said that director Trevor Nunn’s busy schedule made it impossible to rehearse a new American company. Though an official opening was never announced, it was assumed that the show, which won four British Olivier Awards last week, would arrive in New York in the fall. “Using the British cast was the only way forward,” said Mackintosh. “The fact that Equity feels that they can’t allow this leaves nowhere else for us to go.” The incident comes on the heels of a British Arts Council report that targeted Equity’s “restraint of trade.” Equity President Ron Silver maintains that the majority of petitions for visiting companies have been granted.

THE ARTS

High Hopes: National Endowment for the Arts Chairman William J. Ivey says he plans to earmark $50 million for a program to address lawmakers’ concerns about equitable access to NEA funds if Congress awards the federal arts agency the full $150 million requested by President Clinton in his proposed budget. The program, Challenge America, will address the issue of fair geographic distribution of funds across the country, a goal that NEA critics believe was compromised in recent years by the funding of individual artists deemed “offensive” by conservatives. The new program may serve as leverage for the NEA when the full Congress votes on Clinton’s proposed NEA budget, representing an increase of $52 million, later this year.

QUICK TAKES

Memorial services for Troubadour founder Doug Weston, who died Sunday, will be held at the West Hollywood club, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. . . . Grammy front-runner Lauryn Hill captured four Soul Train Music Award nominations, more than any other artist. Performers with two nominations include the Temptations, Will Smith, Kirk Franklin, Kelly Price, Brandy and Mya. The awards will be handed out March 26 during a live telecast from the Shrine Auditorium.