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

TV & VIDEO

‘Ellen’ Update: Gay-rights groups are protesting a Birmingham, Ala., TV station’s decision not to televise the April 30 “Ellen” episode in which the lead character comes out as a lesbian. The Washington-based Human Rights Campaign said that the station, WBMA, “has decided to deprive viewers of the freedom to choose” whether to watch the program. Kevin Snow, organizer of the gay group Birmingham Pride, is also lobbying the station while seeking alternate means for local viewers to see the program. “This is amazing to me,” said Snow, who maintained that many residents are “embarrassed” by the decision. WBMA is thus far the only ABC affiliate to say it won’t run the April 30 episode. Meanwhile, ABC has given the show a TV-14 rating, which strongly suggests parental guidance for viewers under age 14. The show has previously been rated TV-PG for parental guidance suggested.

The Race Is On: NBC’s latest “Must See TV” entry, “Fired Up,” did predictably well in its debut Thursday night, drawing an estimated 26.6 million viewers nationwide, which should be enough to keep it in No. 3 for the week--behind fellow “Must See TV” shows “ER” and “Seinfeld.” “Fired Up,” starring “NYPD Blue” co-star Sharon Lawrence, easily won its 9:30 p.m. time slot, but still lost about 5.6 million viewers from lead-in “Seinfeld.” And although it drew a healthy 27% share of viewers, “Fired Up,” also did slightly worse than its two predecessors in the time slot this season, Brooke Shields’ “Suddenly Susan,” which premiered last September with a 31% viewer share, and Tea Leoni’s “Naked Truth,” which began in January with a 28% viewer share.

It’s a Dog’s World: “Wishbone,” the Emmy-winning PBS series that introduces children to classic literary characters through the adventures of a clever Jack Russell terrier, will move to prime time this fall, premiering in October with an hourlong Halloween-themed episode based on Washington Irving’s classic “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Eight additional weekly half-hour episodes are being produced, including ones based on the following works: Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey,” Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” and William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part I.”

Speaking of Dogs: Walt Disney Home Video has invited more than 5,000 Dalmatians and their owners to converge on New York’s Central Park today for a 1.01-mile “Fun Walk” to celebrate Tuesday’s home video release of “101 Dalmatians.” The event will also include doggy psychic readings, canine caricatures and equestrian-style dog competitions. Oh, and 10,001 pooper scoopers have been ordered.

AIDS Symposium: “ER” star Gloria Rueben, who plays HIV-infected physician assistant Jeanie Boulet on the NBC series, will co-host “ATAS Informs: HIV/AIDS Now,” a free symposium next Saturday about the disease and its impact on the entertainment industry. Sponsored by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Academy Plaza Theatre, 5230 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Sessions include a panel on “Social Issues and Ratings, Too!,” about the depiction of HIV/AIDS on TV, with participants including talk-show host Leeza Gibbons, AIDS activist Aileen Getty, “The Young & the Restless” stars Shemar Moore and Tonya Lee Williams, and actress Amy Hill. Actor Michael Jeter will co-host the event. Attendees are encouraged to bring a donation for the AIDS-related charities Caring for Babies With AIDS and Tuesday’s Child.

PEOPLE WATCH

Kudos to Marsalis, Schwarzenegger: A few days after winning a Pulitzer Prize, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis has received Southern Methodist University’s $50,000 Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts. Marsalis, 35, joins esteemed previous recipients including Ingmar Bergman, Martha Graham, Mstislav Rostropovich, Arthur Miller, Leontyne Price and Stephen Sondheim. . . . The Simon Wiesenthal Center has given actor Arnold Schwarzenegger its National Leadership Award in recognition of his 12 years of support for Los Angeles-based center’s work in education, Holocaust remembrance and humans rights issues. Past honorees include Vice President Al Gore, California Gov. Pete Wilson, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Paramount Pictures executive Sherry Lansing.

QUICK TAKES

Rock band Marilyn Manson, which hit it big with the album “Antichrist Superstar,” has canceled its upcoming concert at the Carolina Coliseum in Columbia, S.C., after state legislators introduced a joint resolution Thursday to ban the band from performing on state property. . . . New York’s Museum of Modern Art has narrowed the list of potential architects for its upcoming expansion project to three international firms: Bernard Tschumi of New York, Yoshio Taniguchi of Tokyo, and Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron of Basel, Switzerland. The winner is expected to be announced by the end of the year. . . . L.A. Theatre Works has received a $100,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant to support a direct-mail marketing campaign to distribute its radio plays on audiocassette. . . . Former “Hunter” star Fred Dryer has won a $2.5-million jury verdict against Skyvision Entertainment, a production company that Dryer said reneged on a promise to finance a movie he was to appear in. However, the jury also awarded Skyvision $200,000 on a counterclaim for cost overruns from “Land’s End,” a 1995-96 TV series that Dryer starred in and Skyvision produced.