MOVIES - Aug. 6, 1993

Breaking More Records: Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur blockbuster “Jurassic Park” on Wednesday became the third-highest grossing film of all time in the United States, with a take of $286.1 million, and was expected to surpass “Star Wars” Thursday night to move into the No. 2 spot, behind only “ET,” another Spielberg project. It took “Jurassic” only eight weeks to surpass former third-place holder “Home Alone’s” gross of $285.7 million. Meanwhile, after only 20 days in release in Britain, the film has become that country’s highest-grossing movie of all time, earning $36.3 million since its release July 26.

TELEVISION

Savage Lawsuit Stand: A Los Angeles Superior Court judge threw out a sexual harassment claim against Dan Lauria, who plays Fred Savage’s father on “The Wonder Years,” but refused to dismiss similar claims Wednesday against Savage and co-star Jason Hervey, who plays his brother. Savage, 17, and Hervey, 21, are accused in a lawsuit of sexually harassing costume designer Monique Long, 31, on the set of the canceled ABC series. Lauria remains accused of defamation for remarks allegedly made after the lawsuit was filed.

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Every Friday: Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan will appear each Friday on KTTV’s “Good Day L.A.” to field videotaped questions from residents throughout the city. “We tried it a week ago and he seemed pleased with it,” executive producer Kim Paul Friedman said. Today’s segment will air at 7:15 a.m. from Cantor’s restaurant in the Fairfax District, although the weekly time will depend on the mayor’s schedule.

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Whetting Appetites: The new Television Food Network will begin setting its cable table earlier than expected. The 24-hour-a-day, food-focused basic cable channel originally was to premiere Thanksgiving week. That’s still scheduled. But the network will start airing a special two-hour “sneak preview” Aug. 30, followed by a four-hour “appetizer” starting Sept. 27. Both introductory samples will be repeated continually until the regular TVFN program schedule is introduced Nov. 23.

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Register to Talk: If “talk-show fever” courses through your veins and visions of telling all to Oprah, Phil or Sally give you a thrill, “The National Talk Show Guest Registry” is the place for you. Set up by the Research Department, which has specialized in locating “civilian” talk-show guests since 1986, the national database charges “Geraldo” guest-wanna-be’s $3 a month to refer them to talk shows. “For some guests, it’s therapeutic. They want to get something off their chest,” says Christopher Darryn, the database’s founder. “Other people just want to be on TV. Almost all are attracted to the guest fees, free travel, free publicity or a chance to rub elbows with celebrities. But the real ‘pot of gold’ is if two national shows get into a ‘bidding battle’ for exclusive rights to your interview--then you can almost write your own ticket.”

RADIO

Memo to Dr. Demento Fans: Dr. Demento, the longtime mad music and crazy comedy playing disc jockey of Los Angeles radio (a.k.a. Barret E. Hansen), insists he will be heard on the airwaves here, despite his recent cancellation by KLSX-FM. Jeff Levy, who distributes Demento’s syndicated show to nearly 200 stations nationwide, said he is in “substantive talks with another competing youth-oriented” L.A. station, which he declined to name. KLSX General Manager Allan Chlowitz said Demento was canceled because he’s syndicated, and “at present we’re not renewing syndicated shows.” Demento said it was a “strictly business decision. Everybody up to Allan Chlowitz has told me they love the show.”

QUICK TAKES

President Clinton is expected to formally announce today the appointment of actress Jane Alexander as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. . . . “Dynasty” star John Forsythe has signed a contract with NBC that will include a TV movie and the development of a series script. Forsythe will also host the reformatted NBC series “I Witness Video,” which moves to 7 p.m. Sundays this fall. . . . Excerpts from a videotape of comedian Sam Kinison’s last performance will be shown on television for the first time today during an “Inside Edition” report on a Kinison family feud over rights to the tape, which is the only recording of new material Kinison tested just before his death last year.

*Quotable: “This isn’t a competition, but the mass media makes it out to be one. I make movies that people want to see. . . . What does it matter if you win two Oscars but nobody goes to your film?”

--Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Mexico City hyping the opening of “Last Action Hero,” which bombed in the United States.