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

ART

UCLA Art Department Picks Head: Mary Kelly, an artist and art theorist who has directed the studio portion of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in New York since 1989, has been appointed chair of UCLA’s art department. She succeeds Henry T. Hopkins, who stepped down last year to become full-time director of the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center. Kelly has exhibited her work widely, including at UCLA/Hammer’s recent “Sexual Politics” show. Before joining the Whitney’s staff, she taught art at the University of Beirut, the University of London and CalArts.

JAZZ

Torme Improving: Singer Mel Torme, who suffered a stroke Aug. 8, is now able to speak clearly and eat solid foods, a spokesman for the crooner said Wednesday. A tube that had been inserted into Torme’s throat to assist his breathing was removed late last week, and the famed vocalist has started learning to walk again. The spokesman added that Torme, 71, fully expects to entertain again, and has been asking about the dates of his future engagements.

TELEVISION

ABC Scheduling: ABC will bench “Coach,” “Second Noah” and the new series “Common Law,” scheduling an ice-skating special, movies and prime-time college football games in the vacated 8-10 p.m. Saturday window beginning Nov. 2. “Coach” and “Second Noah” will return later this season. No decision has been made yet on the fate of “Common Law,” starring Latino comic Greg Giraldo.

Ratings That Talk: Despite the movie’s tough-sell theme of abortion, the star power of Demi Moore, Sissy Spacek and Cher led HBO’s “If These Walls Could Talk” to the best ratings ever for an original HBO movie. Sunday’s telecast attracted 25% of the audience in the 20% or so of homes nationwide that subscribe to the pay service (beating all four networks in homes with HBO). The movie repeats three times next week.

Hold the ‘Bourbon’: Fox is revamping “13 Bourbon Street,” its planned late-night soap opera, as a prime-time drama. Set in New Orleans’ French Quarter, the series had been scheduled to premiere in late-night in January. Instead, Fox, which has seen its prime-time schedule struggle in the ratings this season, will let local stations continue to program the 11 p.m. weekday time period on their own. Sources say many Fox stations were reluctant to give up the hour because they can make more money by airing repeats of programs such as “Married . . . With Children.”

‘Not the End of the World’: Veteran KCBS-TV Channel 2 reporter Dave Lopez is taking a leave of absence from the station due to prostate cancer. The 48-year-old newsman is expected to fully recover and could be back on air by January. He has invited the station to document his treatment for reports that would probably air in February. “I feel great and very confident,” Lopez told The Times Wednesday. “I don’t want to make this a negative in my life. I also wanted to address the fear factor in men, and let them know it’s not the end of the world.”

POP/ROCK

Top o’ the Charts: Showing that there’s room on the pop album chart for the macabre among more palatable fare such as Celine Dion’s “Falling Into You” (No. 1 with 136,000 copies sold) and Kenny G’s “The Moment” (No. 2 with 133,000 copies), Marilyn Manson’s “Antichrist Superstar” made the week’s highest debut. The second full-length collection by the Florida-based industrial rock band came in third with 132,000 copies sold last week, according to SoundScan. Nirvana’s “From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah” fell from No. 1 to to No. 4, with 93,000 copies sold.

PEOPLE WATCH

Reeve Has Detractors Too: “Superman” star Christopher Reeve is under fire from some disabled activists who say his lobbying for more medical research funding is siphoning off money for programs to help people deal with their disabilities. Reeve will be in Minnesota’s Twin Cities Oct. 27 to receive the National Courage Award from the Courage Center, which runs programs for the disabled. However, a St. Paul group called Advocating Change Together has criticized the award, with an organizer saying: “His receiving the Courage Award is sucking up and draining the resources for those of us who already have a broken neck, who are quadriplegics or who are blind.”

QUICK TAKES

Woody Allen will take on a voice of “a character who becomes disenchanted with the day-to-day drudgery of the totalitarian ant world” in DreamWorks SKG’s upcoming computer-animated film “Ants.” A 1998 release is planned. . . . The L.A. District Attorney’s office has declined to file driving under the influence charges against actor Kelsey Grammer, citing “insufficient evidence.” Instead, Grammer, who checked into the Betty Ford Clinic after rolling his sports car last month, has been charged with driving with an expired license--a misdemeanor. . . . Lifetime Television’s “Lifetime Applauds: The Fight Against Breast Cancer” will receive this year’s Golden CableACE Award, the cable industry’s highest honor, during the 18th annual CableACE Awards, airing Nov. 16 on TNT. In addition, Discovery Communications Inc. founder John S. Hendricks will receive the Governors Award for individual achievement, while Nickelodeon will collect the Creators Award for “enriching” cable TV. . . . A misdemeanor battery charge was filed Tuesday against rocker Tommy Lee, who allegedly attacked a TV cameraman who was trying to videotape the Motley Crue drummer and his actress-wife, Pamela Anderson Lee, leaving the Viper Room night club last month.