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

RADIO

Fuhrman to Take Listener Calls: Former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman, who became a central figure in the O.J. Simpson criminal case amid allegations that he was racist, will do his first live Los Angeles radio interview on Thursday at 7 a.m. on KFI-AM (640). The interview will be conducted by KFI’s Bill Handel, who became a friend of Fuhrman’s after the detective investigated a 1992 carjacking of Handel’s wife’s auto. Fuhrman will take calls from the listening audience during the hourlong interview, which KFI will carry commercial-free. Fuhrman also will be a guest host on KFI’s “John and Ken Show” on Friday at 4 p.m.; KFI notes that “John and Ken are not friends of Fuhrman.”

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Topping the Charts: Australian pianist David Helfgott, whose story was told in the Oscar-nominated movie “Shine,” soared to the top of the British classical music charts Tuesday with his first album: a recording of Rachmaninoff’s notoriously difficult Third Piano Concerto. That feat scored a hat trick for Helfgott, who is in the midst of a world tour that includes sold-out solo recitals in Los Angeles next month. He has already topped the classical charts in both the United States and his native Australia.

MOVIES

Writers’, Cinematographers’ Picks: The Writers Guild of America, which overlooked “The People vs. Larry Flynt” when nominating the year’s best scripts, will honor the film’s writers when it holds its annual award ceremonies on March 16. The guild will give Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski its 1997 Paul Selvin Award, a special honor recognizing the script that “best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties, which are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere.” . . . The American Society of Cinematographers has picked “The English Patient’s” John Seale as the year’s best feature film cinematographer. Seale is also nominated for a cinematography Oscar.

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Beatrice Wood to Honor Thornton: Noted ceramic artist Beatrice Wood will celebrate her 104th birthday Sunday in Ojai by presenting the fourth annual Beatrice Wood Film Award to “Sling Blade’s” Billy Bob Thornton. Four years ago, Wood, impressed by her friend Hubert Cornfield’s two vintage films, “Pressure Point” and “The Night of the Following Day,” created for him a ceramic trophy. The upshot became the annual Wood Award, in which honorees select future best picture recipients. Cornfield picked Robert Allen Ackerman in 1995 for his film “Safe Passage”; Ackerman and Cornfield selected Henry Jaglom in 1996 for “Last Year at the Hamptons”; and this year, Cornfield, Ackerman and Jaglom unanimously chose Thornton.

DANCE

Morris Cancels Easter Dates: Citing the difficulty of selling performances on Easter weekend, the Mark Morris Dance Group has canceled its March 28 and 29 repertory programs at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. However, the company will appear as announced from April 3-6 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

TELEVISION

Kuralt to ‘Remember’ History: Charles Kuralt, who retired from CBS News’ “Sunday Morning” three years ago, will return to his alma mater next month to anchor the weekly series “I Remember” on CBS Eye on People, a new cable channel launching March 31. Each hourlong episode will look at a “significant” news story of the last 30 years and the people whose lives it touched.

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Tube Talk: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton helped the cable industry premiere a new home video in Washington Tuesday that is designed to help parents talk to their kids about television. The free video, “Taking Charge of Your TV,” features talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell and includes discussions about TV violence and other topics. Funded by the National PTA, the National Cable Television Assn. and Cable in the Classroom, it’s available through local cable companies or by calling (800) 452-6351.

QUICK TAKES

Former teen heartthrob Donny Osmond is joining the talk-show venue with five 30-minute episodes of “Here’s Donny . . . ,” scheduled to air March 10-14 on VH1. It’ll be part of the cable channel’s “7 More Days of ‘70s” programming. . . . As expected, 20th Century Fox has pushed back the re-release date of “Return of the Jedi” by one week. The third installment of the “Star Wars” trilogy will now be in theaters on March 14, allowing filmgoers more time to see the first two films. . . . ABC’s two-hour broadcast of Elizabeth Taylor’s 65th birthday party attracted 14.9 million viewers, winning its time period Monday night. . . . “The Montel Williams Show” will show its host’s exclusive interview with convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray, conducted at a prison near Nashville, on Friday. . . . Janet Jackson is seeking a restraining order against a man who allegedly has been harassing the pop star at her Malibu home. Ronald Benjamin Singleton, 30, allegedly went to Jackson’s door four times in a 24-hour period last week, claiming to be her husband, the king of Jerusalem and Jesus Christ. In 1992, a New York man who also claimed he was married to her was sentenced to two years in prison for mailing threatening letters.