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

JAZZ

Washington Bound: Ella Fitzgerald’s estate is donating music, arrangements and other memorabilia from the legendary jazz singer to three Washington sites: the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution and National Museum of American History. The library will house an archive of thousands of pages of sheet music capturing “the first lady of song’s” long career. The Smithsonian will get items detailing Fitzgerald’s achievements and character, while the National Museum will get more personal mementos, such as her leopard coat. In accepting the donation, Librarian of Congress James Billington said that, to many, Fitzgerald personifies American music. The singer died last year at age 78. Her son, musician Ray Brown Jr., said his mother would have been “extremely overjoyed” at the bequests.

POP/ROCK

Woodstockland U.S.A.: The field where 400,000 gathered for the 1969 Woodstock festival has been purchased by cable television mogul Alan Gerry, who intends to build a music theme park and performance venue on the site. “There’ll be no merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels--we’re talking about a cultural center,” Gerry said. “[Woodstock] was a very special time in history and I think that the place is special, is known worldwide and has a certain significance to people who grew up in that era.” Gerry paid about $1 million for the original 37 acres of farmland near Bethel, N.Y. He also bought the surrounding 1,000 acres for an undisclosed sum. Gerry said he envisioned the area might have concert halls, band shells, outside entertainment and indoor movie theaters, bringing employment and business to the area’s sagging economy.

Texas vs. Song Lyrics: The Texas state Senate this week voted unanimously to ban state funds from being invested in companies that promote songs with violent or sexually aberrant lyrics. Finance Committee Chairman Bill Ratliff, a Republican and the bill’s author, said that the measure grew out of an article about song lyrics’ effects on children that was written by one of the most fervent critics of such lyrics, C. DeLores Tucker, national chairwoman of the National Political Congress of Black Women Inc. The Texas bill defines prohibited lyrics as those depicting acts of criminal violence including murder and assault; necrophilia, bestiality or pedophilia; illegal use of controlled substances; criminal street gang activity; degradation or denigration of females; or violence against a particular sex, race or ethnic group.

TV & RADIO

Taking ‘The Bull’ by the Horns: NBC has announced plans to make a TV movie for next season chronicling the story of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the admitted killer of 19 people who was saved from spending his life behind bars by testifying at the trial of his Mafia boss, John Gotti. The movie will be based on New York television reporter John Miller’s coverage of the Gotti trial.

High-Cost High Jinks: Bay Area drivers will get three days worth of free rides on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge because of a 1993 radio stunt that jammed morning commuter traffic on the bridge for hours. In response to a class-action suit, owners of the former San Francisco radio station KSOL (it’s since changed hands) have agreed to pay $500,000 in tolls from 2 a.m. May 13 to 2 a.m. May 16, the California Department of Transportation said. In an attempt to poke fun at President Clinton for supposedly tying up traffic at LAX to get a haircut in Air Force One, the radio station parked a van across several lanes of the bridge while an employee inside got a haircut. KSOL’s former owners also must pay an additional $480,000 for sign and other bridge improvements.

KUDOS

And the Honorees Are: The Video Software Dealers Assn. has named John Travolta as 1997’s Video Star of the Year. He will receive the honor July 12 at the group’s annual convention in Las Vegas. . . . The Mexican Cultural Institute, whose Fiesta Broadway celebration takes place in downtown Los Angeles Sunday, will start the party early by presenting Estrella de Nuestra Cultura (Star of Our Culture) awards at the Biltmore Hotel Saturday night. Actress Salma Hayek, folk singer-composer Lalo Guerrero and Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante will each be recognized for elevating Mexican culture to “an unprecedented status.”

QUICK TAKES

The artist formerly known as Prince will play a benefit show Tuesday night at Rimac Arena on the UC San Diego campus. Ticket vouchers ($41.50) go on sale at 11 a.m. today at the arena box office and by phone via Ticketmaster. Proceeds will go to Prince’s children’s charity, Love for One Another. . . . ABC has scheduled the six-hour “Murder One” miniseries, which had originally been planned to air in mid-April, on May 25, 26 and 29. That falls after the conclusion of the important ratings sweeps period and while other networks are likely to be airing reruns. . . . CBS’ “Late Late Show With Tom Snyder” airs its 500th broadcast on Monday. . . . Groove Radio (KACD-FM 103.1) has ended its morning experiment with Jim “The Poorman” Trenton’s dispensing relationship advice to callers. (Trenton was the original host of KROQ-FM’s similar “Love Line” show.) He’s still on the a.m. shift, but with more of a music emphasis.