COVER STORY : AT THE CENTER OF THE DOLE FIRESTORM

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) got plenty of attention when he scolded Hollywood about sex and violence in movies, TV and pop music. But, as The Times reports today (see Page A1), Dole’s comments aren’t changing the face of show business. Yet. The creative and business powerbrokers will tell you they’ve always been thoughful about what they produce. Here, then, are some snapshots of life on the front lines:

BRETT BUTLER

Actress

Brett Butler thinks American television is probably worse than it’s been, “but I can’t isolate this to TV.” Audiences and the political structure, she believes, are not exactly blameless either.

“Violence and instant, powerful sex are very compelling. The demand is there, and therefore the product is there,” says the 37-year-old star of TV’s “Grace Under Fire.”

“But it’s taking the place of more meaningful things. We’re all guilty, and the audience is too.”

In a clear reference to Sen. Bob Dole, Butler said she doesn’t want to hear the attacks from “right-wing politicians who are trying to repeal the ban on assault weapons.”

Is she satisfied with her life in show business?

“My life is not in the industry. I work in it. I go to meetings,” she says. She’s proud of her series, but when it’s over, she adds, “I know that people won’t come up to me at my table and say, ‘Miss Butler, it’s nice to know you.’ ”

Among the things she doesn’t like in the industry is that “the entire time the show ‘Roseanne’ has been on the air, it’s never been nominated for an Emmy [as best comedy series]. So something’s wrong.”

When it comes to sex and violence in entertainment, Butler says, “It’s the lack of other things that disturbs me more. Sex and violence have always been part of the world. It’s the lack of characterization and dialogue” that is the real problem.

“Television families can be moral and unified and just--and not be conventional,” she says. “People need to re-evaluate what they say when they say ‘family.’ ”