RADIOBroadcast News: National Public Radio’s daily news...

RADIO

Broadcast News: National Public Radio’s daily news program “All Things Considered” will expand from 90 minutes to two hours a day, beginning Monday. Producers say the extra time will be used for more coverage of sports and business and more music and technology reviews. The program will be heard weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m. on KCRW-FM (89.9) and KPCC-FM (89.3), with a repeat from 5 to 7 p.m. on KCRW (including a live update at 6:30 p.m.).

TELEVISION

Visit to a Small Planet: NBC has ordered 13 episodes of “3rd Rock From the Sun,” a 1995-96 midseason sitcom series starring John Lithgow and Jane Curtin. It’s about a group of aliens who take human form as a family to study Earth culture. The producers are the Carsey-Werner company (“The Cosby Show,” “Roseanne,” “Grace Under Fire”) as well as the show’s creators, Bonnie and Terry Turner (“Saturday Night Live,” “Wayne’s World” and “Wayne’s World II”). Curtin’s last series, “Kate & Allie,” ran from 1984-89 on CBS. This is Lithgow’s first TV series.

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What’s in a Name?: Slumping CBS, trying to stir up viewer interest, is invoking the title of its classic old series, “Playhouse 90,” for several previously announced specials in the coming season. The new “CBS Playhouse 90” will present Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” starring Jessica Lange, Alec Baldwin and John Goodman; Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys,” with Woody Allen and Peter Falk; and Ernest Thompson’s “The West Side Waltz,” with Shirley MacLaine and Liza Minnelli.

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Dream On . . . and On: Fox TV’s new fall schedule didn’t bring back the reruns of HBO’s “Dream On” series. But starting June 19, Fox will broadcast back-to-back episodes of “Dream On” from 9 to 10 p.m. for three weeks.

PEOPLE

Deja Vu: In Skowhegan, Maine, the post office had a celebrity to mark the issuance of the Marilyn Monroe stamp--her first husband. “It seemed like a nice, positive program, so I said I’d come out,” said James Dougherty, who was married to Monroe for four years before they divorced in October, 1946. Dougherty, who now lives in Sabattus, Maine, met the future star when he was working the night shift for Lockheed Aircraft in California during World War II. Monroe, then Norma Jean Baker, attended a nearby high school. She was 16 when they married. “Her plans then were to be a homemaker,” he said. Dougherty worked for the Los Angeles Police Department for many years; he and his current wife, Rita, moved to Maine after he retired.

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Sticks and Stones . . . Bill Cosby doesn’t see anything funny in New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s tongue-in-cheek slogan for the Big Apple--”We Can Kick Your City’s Ass.” In a commencement address at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, Cosby said the slogan “doesn’t mean, ‘Hello, how are you?’ . . . It doesn’t mean having good manners.” It means, ‘Our city is ruder, nastier and angrier than your city.’ ” Giuliani jokingly adopted the unofficial slogan during a recent appearance on “Late Night With David Letterman.” It was coined by Letterman’s writers. Told of Cosby’s criticism, the mayor said, “It’s unfortunate that he would turn a commencement address into a political attack.”

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For the Cause: Paintings depicting the silhouettes of celebrities ranging from South African President Nelson Mandela to supermodel Claudia Schiffer were auctioned in Paris to raise money for an AIDS charity. The charity Solidarite SIDA (Solidarity AIDS) organized the auction to raise money for research into the disease and emergency care. “There are many ways of doing it and this is one way,” said rock musician Peter Gabriel, who hosted the auction along with Italian supermodel Carla Bruni.

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New Job: James D. Wolfensohn, new president of the World Bank, will step down as chair of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington because he feels he can’t adequately devote enough time to both posts. The financier-philanthropist will become chairman emeritus at the Kennedy Center.

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Good Penmanship: Screenwriter Ernest Lehman (“The Sound of Music,” “West Side Story,” “Sabrina,” “The King and I,” “North by Northwest”) will be honored at the Writers Guild Theater June 25, with Larry Gelbert moderating a discussion session.

QUICK TAKES

Corbin Bernsen is scheduled to throw out the first pitch today at noon at Helen Keller Park in Los Angeles during the opening ceremonies for a new South-Central baseball league for children. It was formed by 13 local independent production companies. . . . Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin does a benefit performance at 8 p.m. Sunday for the Magic Johnson Foundation at West Hollywood’s House of Blues. Arsenio Hall will do the introduction. The foundation has awarded more than $3 million to community-based HIV/AIDS organizations. . . . The run of “Master Class” at the Mark Taper Forum has been extended by six performances. It will now close July 1. . . . The Cartoon Network offers a two-hour tribute at 7 p.m. today to famed animation director Friz Freleng, who died last month at 89 and was best known for his work on the Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck shorts.