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

TELEVISION

Hearn to Be Honored at Local Emmy Awards

KTTV Channel 11 led all other outlets with 18 nominations for the 54th-annual L.A.-Area Emmy Awards, announced Thursday by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. KNBC Channel 4 and Fox Sports Net each collected 12 nominations, and KCAL Channel 9 picked up 11.

The winners will be announced in ceremonies June 29 that will include Los Angeles Lakers announcer Chick Hearn and KCOP Channel 13 producer Pete Noyes receiving the academy’s Governors Award, honoring career achievement in local television.

In addition to the 105 nominations, unveiled Thursday in categories such as news specials, education, crime/social issues and culture/history, all of the local daily newscasts--morning, afternoon and evening--will compete against one another in categories determined by their length.

Networks Focus on World Trade Center

Television networks paused with victims’ families and salvage workers Thursday to mark the end of the cleanup of the near-empty lot where the World Trade Center towers stood until Sept. 11. ABC, CBS, NBC and the cable news networks all interrupted regular programming to cover the short, mostly silent ceremony.

“Today, Ground Zero feels like a church,” noted CBS reporter Byron Pitts.

As cameras followed a truck removing the trade center’s final supporting beam, NBC’s Tom Brokaw noted that “it was an attack not just on the World Trade Center but on the fabric and the family of America.”

TV networks already are planning coverage for the first anniversary of the attacks, with ABC having announced that it will be on the air with a daylong special report.

POP/ROCK

Academy Creates New Grammys in Rap, R&B;

Four new Grammy Award categories have been added by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, which also has created a separate field for dance music.

The new categories are in rap and R&B;, starting with the academy’s decision to split the rap solo vocal performance award into male and female divisions. And in R&B;, contemporary R&B; album and urban/alternative performances will have awards of their own. The changes bring the number of Grammy categories to 104.

The Grammy for best dance recording has been moved out of the pop field into a newly created dance-music field. Because members may vote in a limited number of fields, the move will tend to discourage voting by members without expertise in that area, academy officials said.

In addition, the academy’s annual grant program will increase its funding this year from $400,000 to $700,000, channeling the money primarily toward musical preservation and research projects.

THEATER

Broadway Attendance Down--but Not Much

The League of American Theatres and Producers painted a good news/bad news picture of Broadway box office for the 2001-02 season in a news conference this week. Though attendance dropped after the Sept. 11 attacks, as expected, the fall wasn’t as precipitous as some had feared.

The box-office gross between the first week of June 2001 and the week ending May 26, 2002, was $643.4 million--3.4% lower than the previous, record-setting year. Tickets sold: 10.95 million--a 7.9% dip from the numbers chalked up last season, also a record.

Theater League Heading for Pasadena Civic

Theater League, which once presented musicals at Pasadena Civic Auditorium, is returning to the venue next season. The move fills a gap created by the January collapse of a series sponsored by the facility’s now-defunct foundation and adds another Southland link to the Theater League series in Thousand Oaks and Long Beach.

Scheduled for next season: “Beauty and the Beast” (Sept. 10-15), the dance revue “Burn the Floor” (Nov. 29-Dec. 1) and “Miss Saigon” (April 4-6).

QUICK TAKES

Diana Ross has voluntarily checked into Promises, a Malibu rehab center, to deal with “personal issues” prior to her summer tour, according to her publicist.... Eva Georgia, a veteran radio journalist in her native South Africa, was named Thursday to be general manager at public radio station KPFK-FM (90.7).... The unscripted series “Big Brother” will start a new round on July 10, continuing to air three nights a week on CBS....Anthony Hopkins, Katie Couric, Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal and President Bush are among those participating in a 16-part public TV series, “Freedom: A History of Us.” Based on textbooks by historian Joy Hakim, it’s due to air in January....Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers will start a U.S. tour in June with original bassist Ron Blair taking over for longtime member Howie Epstein. Epstein has left the band “because of his ongoing personal problems,” according to a group spokesman.