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

JAZZ

Velvet Fog Goes Home: Perhaps inspired by fellow crooner Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme returned to his Beverly Hills home over the weekend, where he was greeted by his dog and enjoyed a home-cooked meal. Torme, 71, had been hospitalized since suffering a stroke on Aug. 8. He can speak but will continue therapy to help him walk again, spokesman Rob Wilcox said Monday, adding, “He very much wants to make a full recovery and wants to get back to performing, but it’s going to take some time.”

ART

Queen of the Flies: Yoko Ono is taking to the Internet with a conceptual artwork created for ArtCommotion, a magazine on the World Wide Web. In a new version of a 25-year-old hoax--in which she advertised a show that didn’t exist at New York’s Museum of Modern Art--Ono has devised an exhibition that is said to have been staged at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art but actually exists only in cyberspace. Web surfers who catch her act (https://www.moca.org) will see phony photographs of Ono releasing perfumed flies at MOMA in 1971 and at MOCA this year, as well as reports of nationwide “fly sightings.”

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Modotti’s Story Headed to Film: Mick Jagger and his Jagged Films have secured the rights to Margaret Hooks’ biography on the late photographer Tina Modotti, subject of a current UC San Diego exhibition of newly unearthed works. Gabriel Byrne will executive produce and play one of Modotti’s lovers, while Jagger will produce. The Modotti role has not yet been cast, but Madonna and Linda Fiorentino have previously expressed interest in her story.

STAGE

Buckley’s ‘Night’ Music: Betty Buckley will star in a tour of the theatrical concert “Andrew Lloyd Webber--The Music of the Night,” with a stop at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre, Jan. 8-19. Buckley is familiar to Lloyd Webber fans as Broadway’s first Grizabella in “Cats,” which won her a Tony, and more recently as Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard” in London and New York.

POP/ROCK

Rhythm & Blues Honorees: Classic Motown quartet the Four Tops will receive the Rhythm & Blues Foundation’s 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award, to be bestowed in New York Feb. 27 as part of the annual Grammy Week festivities. Also during the ceremonies, 13 other figures will receive Pioneer Awards, accompanied by a total of $230,000 in grants. Honorees include two other Motown acts, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and the Spinners, plus balladeer William Bell, singer Gary U.S. Bonds, versatile blues man Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and blues singer Little Milton. The Rhythm & Blues Foundation was co-founded eight years ago by Bonnie Raitt to help recognize pioneers in the field who had been denied proper financial compensation. Past lifetime honorees include Bo Diddley, Fats Domino and Ray Charles.

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GNR Continues Sans Slash: Guns N’ Roses, which emerged from Los Angeles clubs in the ‘80s to become one of the biggest-selling bands in rock history, plans to release an album of new material next year despite the recent ouster of guitarist and co-founder Slash, Geffen Records said Monday. The remaining band members--singer Axl Rose, bassist Duff McKagan, keyboardist Dizzy Reed and drummer Matt Sorum--continue to write and rehearse while they search for a new guitarist. Meanwhile, Slash is putting together his own band, although manager Tom Marr does not rule out a reconciliation between Slash and Rose: “You don’t want to close all the doors. Right now, though, Axl and Slash just aren’t seeing eye to eye.”

TELEVISION

What’s Happening to George Bailey?: Comedy Central plans to use actual film footage and dubbed-in dialogue to spoof Frank Capra’s 1946 holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” in “Escape From a Wonderful Life,” scheduled to air Dec. 18. The cable farce tells a new and slightly warped story: James Stewart’s George Bailey is jealous of Arnold Schwarzenegger and wants to make an action movie instead of telling the same old holiday tale. Among other twists, Bailey shuns marriage by telling his would-be wife that he’s gay. However, the project has become a headache for Viacom Inc., which due to corporate acquisitions, now has controlling interests in both Comedy Central and Republic Pictures, owner of the movie’s rights. Comedy Central believes that Republic’s copyrights on the movie’s elements, such as the story line and music, do not extend to the actual filmed images, while Republic Pictures feels otherwise, and has said it will seek help from the courts if necessary. A Viacom spokesman, however, says: “There will be no lawsuit. We will reach an amicable settlement.” NBC, meanwhile, will show the real McCoy on Dec. 21.

QUICK TAKES

“Home Improvement” star Tim Allen will play a real estate hustler on the run from the IRS in “For Richer or Poorer,” a Bubble Factory production for Universal Pictures. . . . Oasis singer Liam Gallagher was arrested in London on Saturday on suspicion of drug possession. Police said a substance was confiscated for analysis, and a Dec. 30 court date is scheduled. . . . “Loveline,” the TV version of KROQ-FM’s (106.7) syndicated radio call-in show, starring Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky, will begin airing Nov. 25 on cable’s MTV, weeknights at midnight.