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

TV & RADIO

Not Your Parents’ MTV: MTV will roll out phase two of its new look on Monday. Initiated in 1996, the changes aim to explore new developments in pop and dance music styles. Most prominently, the cable channel will add 10 to 20 more hours of music videos and music-oriented feature programming per week and is concentrating its non-music shows--including such recent additions as “The Jenny McCarthy Show” and “Daria”--into the 10 p.m.-1 a.m. “10 Spot” block. “What we’re looking to do is a creative overhaul of the channel. . . . It’s time to freshen things up,” said MTV executive vice president Andy Schuon.

‘Mad About You, Baby’: NBC’s “Mad About You” will get a revised theme song--sung by Grammy-winning artist Anita Baker--starting with the April 1 episode. The new full-length version of “Final Frontier,” written by series star Paul Reiser and veteran music producer Don Was, will be the centerpiece of “Mad About You--The Final Frontier,” a 16-track album being released April 15 on Atlantic Records. Other artists featured on the album--which Reiser says aims to tell a story paralleling the Buchmans’ relationship--include Etta James, Elvis Costello, Lyle Lovett, John Lennon, Sarah McLachlan, Eric Martin, Faith Hill, BeBe Winans, Hootie & the Blowfish and Tony Rich. Andrew Gold’s original version of “Final Frontier” is also included.

‘Relativity’ to Mondays: ABC will give its relationship drama “Relativity”--which earned low ratings in a previous Saturday night slot--a three-week Monday night tryout starting March 31. The show--starring Kimberly Williams and David Conrad--will air at 8 p.m. (opposite Fox’s “Melrose Place”) replacing the new series “Spy Game,” which in its three outings has drawn enough viewers to land only at No. 112 out of 130 network shows. ABC said, however, that it will bring “Spy Game” back at a later date.

Peace Forum: KKBT-FM (92.3) will broadcast a “Peace Forum” featuring rappers D.J. Quik, Too Short and B-Real of Cypress Hill on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. Others scheduled for the live forum--held in response to the recent deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.--include Tony Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and Def Jam Entertainment head Russell Simmons.

MOVIES

Monitoring Tobacco Use: The American Lung Assn. has lauded “Twister” as the most smoke-free hit movie of 1996, while giving a Thumbs Down! award to the year’s top grosser, “Independence Day,” for its “extensive glorification of cigars.” The group’s second annual Hackademy Awards, announced Thursday, were chosen by a panel of teens who reviewed the year’s blockbusters and Oscar nominees. The teens, for whom the lung association says movies are a big role model, found that every one of the films nominated for either best picture, best actor or best actress included portrayals of tobacco use, with an average of 36 incidents per movie. However, the panel found that 89% of the movies also included “anti-tobacco” statements, such as when Woody Harrelson’s character in “The People vs. Larry Flynt” discourages his wife from blowing smoke in his face.

‘Crash’ Controversy: Overcoming a campaign in the British tabloids to ban the film because it was “sick” and “depraved,” David Cronenberg’s “Crash” (see review, F10) has been approved to be shown uncut on British screens by censors who called the film “unusual and disturbing” but “neither illegal nor harmful.” The film board broke with convention and published its findings. The movie will carry an 18-and-over rating in Britain, only slightly more restrictive than the NC-17 rating bestowed here by the Motion Picture Assn. of America for “numerous explicit sex scenes.”

Speaking of Foreign Censors: Noted director Mira Nair (“Mississippi Masala”) is having trouble getting “Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love” shown in her native India. In December, the Indian Supreme Court’s Appellate Tribunal ruled that the film needed only two minutes of cuts (India’s censorship board had demanded more than six). However, when Nair resubmitted the edited version, the censor board told her that 12 more cuts were needed. A subsequent court hearing is scheduled for next week in Bombay. The film, which Nair calls “an ancient modern love story,” is playing locally in an unedited, unrated version.

QUICK TAKES

Mayoral candidates Richard Riordan and Tom Hayden will take questions from “Which Way L.A.?” host Warren Olney, L.A. Times reporter Bill Boyarsky and Rick Orlov of the Daily News, from 1 to 2 p.m. today on radio station KCRW-FM (89.9). . . . In its first week in home video release, Michael Jordan’s “Space Jam” has landed at No. 1 on the VideoScan sales chart, as well as No. 1 on the Video Software Dealers Assn.’s VidTrac rentals chart. . . . A judge in Rome has revoked a 1994 order banning the sale in Italy of Michael Jackson’s song “Will You Be There.” The ban had been placed by a lower court after a popular Italian singer, Al Bano, charged that Jackson stole “Will You Be There” from Bano’s song “The Swans of Balaka.” But the higher court, Jackson’s attorney said, found no reliable evidence of plagiarism. . . . Academy Award nominees Anthony Minghella (“The English Patient”), Brenda Blethyn (“Secrets & Lies”), and Armin Mueller-Stahl and Scott Hicks (“Shine”) are among those scheduled to speak at Sherwood Oaks College’s two-day entertainment industry seminar tonight (6-9 p.m.) and Sunday (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) at the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood. Tickets are $40 per session; $75 for both days.