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

POP/ROCK

Taking a Sad Song: The mystery buyer of Paul McCartney’s recording notes for the Beatles’ classic “Hey, Jude” has been revealed as John Lennon’s son, Julian. McCartney wrote the song for Julian, seeking to cheer up the youngster when his parents were separating. Originally called “Hey Jules,” it contains the poignant lyric, “Take a sad song and make it better.” Singer-songwriter Lennon, 33, whose father and mother, Cynthia, split up when he was 5 years old, paid $39,030 at a London auction last month for the notes. “He has a few photographs of his father but not very much else,” Julian Lennon’s manager, John Cousins, told the London Sunday Times when revealing the mystery buyer at a Beatles memorabilia auction. “He is collecting for personal reasons. These are family heirlooms if you like.” John Lennon, who left Cynthia for artist Yoko Ono, was murdered 16 years ago outside his New York apartment building.

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Beatles a Hot Seller: Capitol Records says “The Beatles Anthology Home Video,” which was released Sept. 5, is one of the hottest video sets ever sold. In its first three weeks on the shelves, the eight-tape, 10-hour documentary has outperformed sales of another all-time top video, 1994’s “Baseball--A Film by Ken Burns,” by six times for a comparable period. The score: Fab Four 50,000; “Baseball” 7,700.

MOVIES

Not Laughing: The Dole for President campaign was not amused by a mock campaign poster featuring Bob Dole that was placed in the Los Angeles Weekly by Capitol Records. The firm is releasing the soundtrack album for the controversial British movie “Trainspotting,” a film the Republican candidate says glorifies drug abuse. The ad, which ran once, depicts Dole with a large lapel badge reading “Iggy Pop for President.” The punk veteran’s song “Lust for Life” is on the soundtrack and is featured prominently in the movie. Dole’s press secretary, Nelson Warfield, said “nothing better illustrates the need for corporate responsibility in the entertainment industry than this glib and whimsical ad for the soundtrack from a movie that glamorizes heroin use. . . . Too many entertainment industry executives seem to think that drug abuse is something to laugh about.” A Capitol spokesperson said no offense was intended.

TELEVISION/RADIO

Stirring the Air: It’s that time of year when you need a scorecard to tell the players and that was especially true Monday at sister talk radio stations KMPC and KABC. With the stations swapping players and juggling programs, Dave Cooke, Talkradio 790 KABC operations manager and program director, said weekends on his station will be “more issue and topic oriented.” Over at 710 Talk/KMPC, the focus was on Turi Ryder, a Chicago talk-show hostess, taking over from “Terrell & Katz” from noon to 3 p.m. daily and the addition of weekend restaurant critics Merrill Shindler (4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday) and Elmer Dills (4 to 7 p.m. on Sunday). Shindler and Dills come over from KABC, while attorney Leo Terrell and ex-Superior Court Judge Burton Katz segue to the other station for weekend duty from 4 to 7 p.m. Among other changes, attorney Gloria Allred gets the 7 to 10 p.m. slots on KABC on Saturday and Sunday, boosting her air time by four hours.

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There’s More, Folks: HBO Original Programming announced the launching of an animation division that will create programming for HBO and other cable and broadcast networks. The first two projects for Century City-based HBO animation will be “Spawn,” an adaptation of a top-selling comic book, and “Spicy City,” created by veteran animator Ralph Bakshi (“Cool World,” “Fritz the Cat”). Six episodes of each are scheduled for 1997 on HBO. Chris Albrecht, president of HBO Original Programming, said the new division “will explore the largely untapped field of adult-oriented animation, allowing offbeat creative talents the kind of unrestricted freedom that’s rare on television.”

DANCE

Fosse Winners Named: The third annual Bob Fosse Awards for achievement in dance were to be presented Monday night in ceremonies at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica. Among the honorees: Graciela Daniele for movie(“Mighty Aphrodite”), Michael Rooney, son of Mickey, for music video (Bjork’s “It’s Oh So Quiet”), Adam Shankman for commercial (“Office Building Sap”), Michael Kidd for lifetime achievement, Daniel Ezralow for choreography outside the mainstream and Claude Thompson for choreography education. Paula Abdul and Shirley MacLaine were set as presenters. Special tributes were slated for the late Gene Kelly and Juliet Prowse. Beneficiary of the event was the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

QUICK TAKES

The newly restored version of 1964’s “My Fair Lady,” which stars Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn and won eight Academy Awards, will have its world television premiere on Thanksgiving from 7:30-11 p.m. on the CBS Television Network. . . . Nickelodeon’s third annual Big Help-a-thon, broadcast over the weekend from Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, drew record-setting pledges of 92.5 million hours of volunteer service from kids across the country.