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

ART

Gift for MOCA: Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art has received a gift of 21 works by Joseph Cornell, a self-taught artist whose imaginative collages and assemblages formed a link between European Surrealism and American Pop art. The acquisition, composed of six mixed-media box constructions and 15 collages from the late 1950s to the mid-’60s, was donated by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation. The artist, who died in 1972, combined a romantic vision with found objects to fashion dreamlike spaces and intimate scenarios. Among the most important pieces in the MOCA gift is an untitled 1959 box containing an illustration of a French game, Jeu de l’Etoile. The gift joins four other Cornells in the museum’s collection, donated in 1983 by the foundation. Selections from MOCA’s Cornell holding will be displayed early next year at the California Plaza facility.

TELEVISION

Heritage Honors: The 10th annual Hispanic Heritage Awards were to be presented Monday night at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington with a TV special of the event planned for nationwide showing in October. Recipients of the honors include novelist Isabel Allende, Emmy Award-winning actor Jimmy Smits, designer Oscar de la Renta, Baltimore Orioles baseball star Bobby Bonilla, Secretary of Transportation Federico F. Pen~a, and women’s rights advocate Carmen Delgado Votaw. Among entertainers slated to perform were Julio Iglesias, Maria Conchita Alonso and Gloria Estefan with stage duties being handled by MTV hostess Daisy Fuentes, Grammy winner Jon Secada, film actors Rita Moreno and Edward James Olmos and TV performers Liz Torres and Michael de Lorenzo. The hour special is slated for showing on KABC-TV Channel 7 on Oct. 13 at 3 p.m.

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KTLA Shuffle: In an attempt to bolster viewership and increase its news presence, KTLA-TV Channel 5 is reshuffling its daytime lineup while adding a half-hour of news. The station on Monday bumped “Pat Bullard” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., saying it was not performing as well as expected following “Sally Jessy Raphael” at 9 a.m. “Scoop With Sam & Dorothy” was moved from 11 a.m. to 10 a.m., marking the entertainment show’s third time slot in three weeks. Reruns of “Blossom” and “Dinosaurs” will fill the 11 a.m. to noon slot until next week, when the station’s noon newscast moves to 11 a.m. with a shortened half-hour format. KTLA will also premiere a 5-to-6 a.m. edition of its Morning News on Monday. Anchors for both the 5 a.m. news and the 11 a.m. news have not yet been set.

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KCAL Notice: More than 100 employees at KCAL-TV Channel 9 have received letters from management warning of possible layoffs when the station changes ownership from the Walt Disney Co. to Young Broadcasting. The notification is required under Federal Communications Commission rules when a station is sold. The letters went to non-union, non-contract employees of the station last week, and was followed by another letter from Young Broadcasting saying they would try to keep many of the employees. The sale is expected to close in November.

MUSIC

Leader for Opera Pacific: Patrick L. Veitch, 52, has been appointed general director and chief executive officer of the Irvine-based Opera Pacific, effective immediately, the company announced Monday. Founding director David DiChiera will continue with the company as artistic director, a position newly created for him. Most of DiChiera’s time, however, will be devoted to Michigan Opera Theatre, which he founded in 1971 in Detroit, and to the Detroit Opera House. A Texas native, Veitch was director of marketing for the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1976 to 1981; general director of the Australian Opera in Sydney, 1981-89; and president of Pennsylvania Ballet, 1989-91. He plans to move from Beverly Hills to Orange County to take his new post.

QUICK TAKES

That commercial break-free edition of CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman” Friday paid off with his first defeat of NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” since Dec. 20, 1995, at least among regularly scheduled shows. The show, which included a performance by Pearl Jam, averaged a 6.3 rating/16 share in Nielsen’s 33 markets, compared with a 5.8/15 for Leno. . . . Former “SCTV” and Tony winner Andrea Martin’s solo show “Nude Nude Totally Nude,” previously seen at New York’s Public Theater and in Canada, opens at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills Oct. 13. . . . “Play On!,” the new musical at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, will play on after its Oct. 26 closing. Workin’ Man Theatricals announced plans to take the Cheryl West-Duke Ellington-Sheldon Epps show to Broadway in March, venue still unknown. . . . Little Richard, Travis Tritt and members of R.E.M., the B-52s and others turned out for a gala Sunday marking the opening of the $6.6-million Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, Ga. The museum has exhibits on such stars as Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers and Otis Redding, who are identified with Macon.