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

POP/ROCK

Grammys Grow: Grammy Award trustees have voted to recognize the increased importance of albums over singles and the phenomenal growth of the worldwide Latin music market. Starting with next year’s Grammy ceremony, to be held for the first time in New York’s Madison Square Garden, the record of the year category, previously open only to commercially released singles, will include album tracks as well. Among key songs that have been excluded in recent years are Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” (which won the songwriter-oriented best song Grammy), Nirvana’s “All Apologies” and songs by Pearl Jam. Among past landmarks, no song on the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”--the best album for 1967--was a single. The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences board also voted to establish a Latin Recording Academy covering the Spanish-speaking world and to rename the Mexican American performance Grammy category to Mexican American/tejano--in recognition of the lively Texas-originated sound that now dominates Latin-pop in the U.S. The changes were announced Tuesday after a trustees meeting in Hawaii.

TELEVISION

Coming Back: In the early 1970s, the persnickety Felix Unger (Tony Randall) and the slovenly Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) were “The Odd Couple,” ABC’s classic sitcom characters based on Neil Simon’s play and film. Next month, the mismatched pair return in reruns on Nick at Nite with a three-night marathon, June 3, 5 and 7 from 9 to midnight. Then they get a regular Monday-Friday slot at 11 p.m. . . . “VH1 Archives,” billed as a collection of interesting and surprising television interviews and performances, begins May 29 at 6 p.m. on VH1. It will feature classic music artists’ appearances on variety and talk shows from the late ‘60s through the ‘80s. Up first is Janis Joplin on “The Dick Cavett Show” from 1969 followed by a second episode that will feature Elton John’s 1970 in-studio performance on “BBC in Concert.” Spotlighted in other shows: Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Sly and the Family Stone.

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Montel Says No: Talk show host Montel Williams is joining forces with the White House to produce and direct anti-drug public service announcements. Williams will work with the Office of National Drug Control Policy on the spots, which will be made available by Paramount Domestic Television and the White House to broadcast outlets. The two Williams-directed spots, “The Good Times” and “Party Girl,” feature young people who have successfully battled drug addictions and have been rehabilitated.

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Ready to Roll: Filming begins Thursday in Toronto on “Angel of Harlem,” an HBO Pictures production slated for showing late this year on the cable network. The story is about Earl “The Goat” Manigault, a legendary street basketball player whose chances at the pros were destroyed by drug addiction but who recovered and used basketball to help steer Harlem kids away from drugs and crime. Don Cheadle (“Devil in a Blue Dress”) plays Manigault. Others in the cast: James Earl Jones, Loretta Devine, Glynn Turman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pooh Richardson, Clarence Williams III and Forest Whitaker. Directing is “ER’s” Eriq LaSalle.

STAGE

CTG Adds Ticket Sales: Center Theatre Group has dropped TicketMaster and added ticket sales to its existing in-house CTG Audience Services office. The phone number to call for Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre performances that take place after June is (213) 628-2772.

QUICK TAKES

Jack Lemmon, 71, was nursing a sore ankle but scheduled to keep working Tuesday on location in Asheville, N.C., a day after he was treated at a hospital because a horse stepped on him during the filming of “My Fellow Americans.” The horse, used by a volunteer sheriff’s squad to control crowds, became spooked by music during filming of a parade scene, a publicist said. . . . All the world was a stage Monday night at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington as Sir Ian McKellen received the first Sir John Gielgud Golden Quill award for excellence in the dramatic arts. The black-tie benefit in the library’s Elizabethan Theater featured video greetings from Gielgud--he’s 92 and couldn’t travel from England--and comments from Lynn Redgrave and Kelly McGillis. . . . Deion Sanders, who has raked in millions as a two-sport athlete and a frequent endorser of products, has a new gig: Columbia Pictures confirmed that it has signed the Dallas Cowboys defensive back and former major league baseball player to star in a feature film. The as-yet-untitled action movie is set to start shooting in February, studio officials said. They didn’t disclose how much Sanders will be paid. . . . Liza Minnelli, opening a run at Bally’s in Las Vegas tonight, will be presented with the third annual Liberace Legend Award from the Las Vegas-based Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts. Previous recipients include Debbie Reynolds and Siegfried and Roy. . . . The Television Academy of Arts & Sciences will pay tribute to Bob Hope on May 30 with “Bob Hope and the Academy: 50-50,” a celebration marking the dual 50th anniversaries of Hope’s television career and the academy’s founding. The tribute, at the academy’s North Hollywood headquarters, will feature seven of Hope’s ex-writers.