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

TELEVISION

Look Out, Jay and Dave: Cable’s VH1 is getting into the late-night talk-show business--with the help of super model/cross-dresser RuPaul. “The RuPaul Show,” a weekly, Saturday 11-11:30 p.m. talk program in which RuPaul the diva will “get the scoop” on celebrity lives, starts production Tuesday for an Oct. 12 premiere. The show will be taped before a live audience at VH1’s New York studios. Scheduled guests so far include Dennis Rodman, Whoopi Goldberg, Cher, Eartha Kitt and Dionne Warwick.

Series Notes: CBS is billing Sept. 16 as “Big Comedy Monday,” with the network premiering Bill Cosby’s new show, “Cosby,” and the Ted Danson series “Ink” from 8-9 p.m. that night while previewing “Pearl”--a sitcom starring Rhea Perlman--at 9:30 p.m. after “Murphy Brown.” Most CBS series will then be introduced over the next two weeks, though the Wednesday lineup will be delayed because of presidential debates. . . . NBC, which has been criticized recently for having a lack of minorities in much of its “Must See TV” lineup, has signed former “Roc” star Charles S. Dutton to develop, star in and executive produce a one-hour drama series for the 1997-98 season. So far, NBC has committed to six episodes of the as-yet untitled series. . . . ABC has ordered six episodes of “Gun,” a one-hour anthology from producers Robert Altman (“The Player”) and Jim Sadwith (“Sinatra”), as a midseason replacement. The series “follows the life of a semiautomatic, pearl-handled gun as it passes from one unpredictable situation to another.” Stars will change each week, with Peter Horton (“thirtysomething”), Rosanna Arquette and James Gandolfini (“Crimson Tide”) appearing in the pilot. . . . O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden will be a guest this fall on the CBS series “Touched by an Angel,” delivering an anti-gang sermon to a church congregation.

MUSIC

Gergiyev Promoted: Valery Gergiyev, who as chief conductor injected new life into St. Petersburg’s famed Marinsky Theater after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, has been named the institution’s artistic director. Under his musical leadership, the Marinsky--formerly the Kirov Theater--has earned creative raves and risen above its stagnating, Moscow-based rival, the Bolshoi. Gergiyev, who was named artistic director by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, received the International Assn. of Musical Critics’ coveted best director award in 1995.

RADIO

KIIS Lineup, Macarena Style: Deejay “Magic Matt” Alan, who left radio station KIIS-FM (102.7) in 1991 to take over a morning drive slot in San Diego, returns to KIIS-FM on Monday, again taking over the 3-7 p.m. weekday afternoon drive slot. The current afternoon drive host, Billy Burke, will move to the 10 a.m.-3 p.m. shift, replacing Bruce Vidal, who goes to midnight-5 a.m. Meanwhile, “Magic Matt” will celebrate his return by leading “The World’s Largest Macarena Dance” during Saturday’s L.A. Dodgers game at Dodgers Stadium. KIIS hopes to attract 50,000 participants to beat the Guinness World Record set at a Seattle Mariners game in which 37,555 joined in the new dance craze. But the Dodger fans will have some competition--New York Yankees fans are scheduled to make their own attempt at the record today.

JAZZ

Torme Update: Singer Mel Torme, who was hospitalized late last week after suffering a stroke, remained in stable condition at a Los Angeles area hospital. A partially collapsed lung and pneumonia have cleared up, and a tube that has been assisting Torme’s breathing was scheduled to be removed today, his spokesperson said. It is too soon to tell whether the slurred speech and slight paralysis in the left side that motivated Torme’s wife, Ali, to take the veteran performer to the hospital, have improved. However, the 70-year-old Torme was awake and aware, has never lost consciousness and, according to his spokesperson, “his sensory and mind conditions have been 100%.”

QUICK TAKES

The Cure canceled tonight’s scheduled concert at the San Diego Sports Arena without explanation. Ticket-holders can receive a refund or can exchange their tickets for seats to the band’s Saturday show at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Exchanges must be done at the point of purchase. San Diego ticket-holders only are invited to catch the band’s Irvine Meadows sound check at 5 p.m. . . . The Community Redevelopment Agency on Thursday approved the sale of Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater to the American Cinematheque, which plans to move its headquarters into the property by New Year’s Eve of 1997. Under the deal, the CRA will sell the complex for only $1 and provide a $3-million repair grant toward the $9.5-million project. The City Council is expected to approve the plan later this month. . . . Julia Sweeney’s one-woman show “God Said, ‘Ha!,’ ” which finishes its acclaimed run at West Hollywood’s Coronet Theatre on Aug. 25, is headed to Broadway, where it is scheduled to open in October at the Lyceum Theatre. . . . The rock band Aerosmith, which recently fired its longtime manager Tim Collins, has replaced him with public relations executive Wendy Laister, who had worked for Collins and Aerosmith for the last three years. . . . Turner Program Services has ceased production on its syndicated series “The Lazarus Man” because of the medical condition of star Robert Urich, who is undergoing chemotherapy for synovial sarcoma, a form of soft-tissue cancer. . . . Anna Thomas (“Mi Familia”) was named outstanding producer at last Friday’s 25th anniversary Golden Eagle Awards. Due to incorrect information supplied by the sponsoring Nosotros organization, Saturday’s Morning Report listed an incorrect winner.