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

TV & RADIO

‘Ellen’ Under Fire: The “Ellen” episode in which Ellen DeGeneres’ character “comes out” as a lesbian is again putting television on the firing line for its “family values.” On Thursday a lobbying group chastised Disney, ABC and the producers of “Ellen,” calling the show a “slap in the face to America’s families.” The Media Research Center took out a full-page ad in the trade paper Daily Variety to express its views, which a spokesman said have been underrepresented by the media. The ad--which concludes with the line, “Shame on Disney, and shame on ABC. American families deserve better”--was signed by 33 political and religious figures, including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Oliver North and former Watergate felon Chuck Colson, who has since founded a ministry. ABC had no comment. . . . Meanwhile, it turns out the April 30 episode won’t be the only show to deal with someone “coming out” that week. Fox has scheduled a “Married . . . With Children” two days earlier in which co-star Amanda Bearse (who personally came out as a lesbian in 1993) plays a dual role as her character, Marcy, and her “visiting cousin Mandy,” who reveals she’s a lesbian. The episode is titled “Lez Be Friends.”

Campaigns, Violence and Health: The presidential campaign was the leading topic on the three network evening news shows in 1996 by a wide margin, pushing crime, which had led the list for three straight years, to second place. The campaign drew 1,865 stories in 1996, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which surveyed all 13,201 stories on ABC’s, CBS’ and NBC’s nightly broadcasts. In 1992, however, the broadcasts aired 2,427 stories on that year’s presidential race. Crime coverage drew 1,227 stories in 1996--including 144 about the O.J. Simpson civil trial (Simpson’s criminal trial garnered 874 stories in 1995). Coverage of health issues was third in 1996, with 810 stories.

No Rivalry Here: New Spanish-language station KSCA-FM (101.9) has stolen away a chunk of audience from top-ranked KLVE-FM (107.5), but KLVE President Richard Heftel isn’t bothered. That’s because his Heftel Broadcasting Corp. also owns KSCA. KSCA made a stunning debut in the Arbitron quarterly ratings this week, tripling its audience share from the station’s previous adult album alternative format and finishing sixth in the market. KLVE, which plays Spanish-language love songs and ballads, was still first but saw its audience share drop from 6.9% to 6%. Was KSCA to blame? “Absolutely. KLVE was so large it was pretty much expected,” Heftel said, adding that the station filled a void in the market for Mexican regional music--which he defined as “a country station for Mexicans.”

MOVIES

Double Feature: “Lois & Clark” star Teri Hatcher has signed on as the next Bond girl for United Artists’ “Tomorrow Never Dies,” due for release this Christmas. Hatcher will play the wife of a dangerous and powerful media mogul who also shares a “secret past” with James Bond (Pierce Brosnan). . . . Tim Burton (“Batman,” “Edward Scissorhands”) is set to direct a remake of the 1963 Roger Corman cult classic “X--The Man With X-Ray Eyes” for DreamWorks SKG and Orion Pictures. Bryan Goluboff (“The Basketball Diaries”) is working on the screenplay.

And the Nominees Are: The Academy Awards are long gone, but “Jerry Maguire” has one more chance to be named best movie. It will vie for the honor with “Independence Day,” “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet,” “Scream” and “The Rock” at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards, filming in Santa Monica June 7 and airing on the cable channel June 12. Among the other nominees: Vivica A. Fox (“ID4”), Courtney Love (“The People vs. Larry Flynt”), Matthew McConaughey (“A Time to Kill”), Ewan McGregor (“Trainspotting”) and Renee Zellweger (“Jerry Maguire”) for breakthrough performance, and Bush’s “Machinehead” (“Fear”), Eric Clapton’s “Change the World” (“Phenomenon”), Garbage’s “#1 Crush” (“Romeo + Juliet”), Madonna’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” (“Evita”) and R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” (“Space Jam”) for best movie song. And the nominees in the ever-popular “best kiss” category? Christopher Daniel Barnes and Christine Taylor (“A Very Brady Sequel”), Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon (“Bound”), Will Smith and Vivica A. Fox (“ID4”), John Travolta and Kyra Sedgwick (“Phenomenon”), and Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Romeo + Juliet”).

Extra Trouble: The parents of a 14-year-old movie extra have sued Columbia Pictures and its divisions, TriStar and Phoenix Pictures, claiming the studio filmed their son and other children in a nude scene for the upcoming Stephen King adaptation “Apt Pupil” without their permission. The lawsuit also claims the studio broke its promise of strict supervision and no nudity during the filming of a shower scene earlier this month at Elliot Middle School in Altadena. Philip and Constance St. Albin claim their son, Devin, was asked to remove his clothes and don a “G-string” for filming. A Phoenix Pictures spokeswoman said St. Albin was not nude, but that she had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment further.

QUICK TAKES

Orion Pictures says it has received 1,500 calls responding to fake severed heads placed around various L.A. locations as a promotion for the new Joe Pesci movie “Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag.” Callers will be entered in a $500 contest drawing. . . . The Radio and Television News Directors Assn. has named KCOP-TV Channel 13’s 10 p.m. broadcast the best newscast in the western United States.