Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

MOVIES

Planet Bombshell: Fears of a bomb attack have forced the cancellation of the scheduled Sept. 3 gala opening party for Planet Hollywood’s Paris eatery on the famed Champs Elysees. Organizers said Paris Police Chief Philippe Massoni requested the cancellation for safety reasons. Two bomb attacks in the past month have killed seven people and wounded nearly 100 in central Paris. Police suspect Algerian Muslim rebels who accuse France of backing the military-led Algiers government. Planet Hollywood shareholders including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were to attend the official inauguration of the restaurant, which opened to the public a week ago. Whoopi Goldberg, Cindy Crawford, Gerard Depardieu and a host of other screen celebrities had also planned to attend, organizers said.

RADIO

Can’t We All Get Along?: Public radio station KPCC-FM (89.3) will premiere “Shades of L.A.,” a new nine-part series of live weekly broadcasts on race relations in Los Angeles, on Oct. 11. The two-hour program will run from 5 to 7 p.m. as part of “Larry Mantle’s AirTalk.” Each edition, which will include live town-meeting-style discussions before representatives of various community groups and members of the general public, will explore a different aspect of pluralism in the city. The series is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities under its National Conversation on American Pluralism and Identity initiative.

PEOPLE WATCH

Carmen’s Triple Play: Actress Carmen Zapata, co-founder of Los Angeles’ Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, on Thursday received a Women of Courage Award from the L.A. City Commission on the Status of Women. Zapata will score a hat trick in the coming weeks: She receives an Achievement in the Arts award Sept. 16 from the San Diego Chicano Federation and on Sept. 27 will be in Washington to receive the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Medallion of Excellence. The latter award recognizes Zapata for being a positive role model.

TELEVISION

Dead Helps Keep PBS Alive: KCET-TV Channel 28’s first airing of “Dead Ahead--The Grateful Dead in Concert” Thursday night brought the PBS station 362 pledges totaling about $32,000--”strong” numbers but “not a record breaker,” a station spokeswoman said. By comparison, last year’s “Three Tenors” premiere brought KCET about $100,000 and December’s premiere of an Eagles concert rang up $40,000. The spokeswoman noted, however, that Thursday night’s broadcast was a “last-minute addition” and that the Dead concert may bring in more big numbers when it re-airs Monday at 9 p.m.--the time slot originally scheduled for its station premiere. Orange County PBS station KOCE-TV Channel 50 scored its second-highest pledge total ever on Aug. 9, when its premiere of the concert--featuring the band’s 1980 Halloween night show at New York’s Radio City Music Hall--happened to coincide with the death of Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia. . . . Meanwhile, there was good news for the Public Broadcasting System as a whole this week with the release of preliminary figures for this month’s national fund-raising efforts, which suggest that pledges could be up as much as 32% over last year in 52 markets surveyed. PBS cautioned, however, that the increase will likely drop when the smaller precincts have reported.

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Let’s Talk About Sex and Violence: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced plans this week for an all-day public conference about sex and violence on TV in late January or early February at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The forum, “Television’s Impact on Society: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly,” was described as focusing on “the impact of television on American society . . . primarily on the issues of sex and violence as portrayed on scripted prime-time and children’s programming.” It follows last year’s successful academy conference, the “Superhighway Summit,” which included an address from Vice President Al Gore.

QUICK TAKES

Comedian Bill Maher, host of Comedy Central’s “Politically Incorrect” series, will headline at Pasadena’s Ice House on Sunday at 7 p.m., in preparation for his Sept. 23 HBO special, “Bill Maher: Stuff That Struck Me Funny.” . . . Ringo Starr has canceled the remainder of his U.S. tour, including shows Sunday at the Santa Barbara Bowl and Monday at Humphrey’s in San Diego. The ex-Beatle, who is returning to England because of a sudden illness in his family, played at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre last weekend. . . . Vibraharp masters Milt Jackson and Terry Gibbs have been added to the Hollywood Bowl’s Sept. 13 American Airlines Jazz at the Bowl concert. Jazz master Lionel Hampton, who was originally scheduled, will not appear because his doctors won’t allow him to fly as he recovers from a recent stroke. . . . Performances by the Golden West Ballet Theatre today and Sunday at the Robert Frost Theatre in Culver City have been canceled due to technical problems. The company hopes to reschedule the program in November. . . . Also canceled is the Southern California Blues Society’s “Blues at the Ford” program, scheduled for Sept. 3 at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. A spokesman attributed the cancellation to poor ticket sales.