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

MOVIES

Poor Role Model?: The National Federation of the Blind has asked the Walt Disney Co. to abandon production on a new live-action Mr. Magoo movie, complaining that reviving the hapless, nearsighted cartoon character is an insult to the blind. The resolution, passed unanimously this week by 3,000 delegates at the group’s convention in New Orleans, says that the Mr. Magoo stereotype is as offensive to the blind as Little Black Sambo is to blacks. “Mr. Magoo,” with Leslie Nielsen in the title role, is set for a Christmas release. The measure stops short of a boycott, such as the one voted recently by the Southern Baptist Convention upset with what it called a “gay friendly” approach by Disney. But it calls on the 50,000 members of the nation’s largest blind group to take “whatever action appropriate” to protest Mr. Magoo’s return. Disney officials had no immediate comment on the action. The animated Mr. Magoo, whose nearsighted wanderings took him to the threshold of tragedy but never quite over it, first appeared in 1949 and subsequently was featured in 39 theatrical shorts, 130 half-hour TV episodes and two hour-long TV specials before being retired 32 years ago.

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Honoring Diversity: The Directors Guild of America has announced plans for its first DGA Diversity Award, which will honor “a producer or employer in the industry who has demonstrated consistent commitment to and leadership in the hiring of women and ethnic minorities in DGA categories.” Nominations will be accepted through July 11; the winner will be announced on Sept. 20 at the culmination of a daylong DGA “Summit on Diversity” aimed at improving employment for women and minority directors. A recent DGA study showed that both groups are still severely underrepresented in the industry.

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Better Than a How-to Book: Universal Pictures is crediting its 1988 dinosaur movie, “The Land Before Time,” with leading to 3-year-old David Shiffler’s discovery of a dinosaur eggshell in New Mexico. The dotted shell fragment, believed to be approximately 100 million years old, has been placed on display at Albuquerque’s New Mexico Museum of Natural History. Universal said that the boy’s family had watched “The Land Before Time” on video before embarking on a vacation, and “the scenes involving dinosaur eggs excited David,” thus inspiring him to dig for things on the trip. He was digging in a rest stop when he made the find.

TELEVISION

ABC Plans: Disney-owned ABC this week announced its slate of movies and miniseries for next season. Scheduled are 11 theatrical movies, including “Apollo 13” and “Waterworld,” and 23 new made-for-TV movies, including the previously announced updated version of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” starring Christopher Reeve; “Crimes of Passion: One Hot Summer Night,” featuring the acting debut of O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden; and movie incarnations of the autobiography “Bad as I Wanna Be: The Dennis Rodman Story” and the true-life account “Into Thin Air: Death on Everest.” Also planned are three miniseries: “Medusa’s Child,” from “Pandora’s Clock” author John J. Nance; “Peter Benchley’s ‘Creature,’ ” with special effects by Stan Winston (“Jurassic Park”); and “Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding,” based on the Dorothy West novel and starring Halle Berry. The above are in addition to the more than 30 films scheduled for the Sunday night “Wonderful World of Disney” slate, which premieres in September. As previously announced, Disney programming will include both theatrical fare--ranging from Disney’s own “Pocahontas” to outside films like “Babe”--along with original TV movies, including “Angels in the Endzone,” a sequel to the big screen’s “Angels in the Outfield”; an updated version of “The Love Bug”; a new “Oliver Twist,” starring Richard Dreyfuss and Elijah Wood; “Toothless,” starring Kirstie Alley as the tooth fairy; and “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” starring Whitney Houston, Brandy and Whoopi Goldberg.

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CBS Schedule Shift: CBS will move several shows into new time periods prior to the new TV season’s start. Changes include “Murphy Brown” taking its place Wednesdays after “The Nanny” starting in late July, while “JAG” and “Promised Land” shift to Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, in early August. CBS will also air a new program, entitled “Ordinary/Extraordinary,” through the summer starting Aug. 1 and bring back the news magazine “Coast to Coast” on July 23 to pave the way for Bryant Gumbel’s new program, which premieres in September.

PEOPLE WATCH

Partial Victory: Fearing a public relations nightmare, a Japanese pharmaceuticals company has dropped its plans for an osteoporosis test that would have involved breaking the legs of 36 beagles. The beagles owe their fracturelessness to actress and animal rights activist Kim Basinger, who stirred up international publicity by offering to adopt the dogs. However, Basinger was stopped Thursday in her bid to follow through with the offer. She was turned away by New Jersey’s Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory, which said the dogs were bred for research and were unprepared to live outside a lab.

QUICK TAKES

More than 60 U.S. radio stations--including Los Angeles’ KRTH-FM (101.1) and KPWR-FM (105.9)--will simulcast the “George of the Jungle” theme song today at noon. The effort is a plug for Disney’s upcoming live-action feature film of the same name, which opens in theaters July 16. . . . A San Francisco appeals court ruled this week that former “Cheers” regulars George Wendt (“Norm”) and John Ratzenberger (“Cliff”), who claim that robot barflies at a chain of airport restaurants look like them, can take their case to trial. A federal judge had dismissed the actors’ lawsuit last year, saying he saw no similarities. . . . Ron Rifkin has replaced Barry Newman in the cast of Neil Simon’s “Proposals,” which opens July 16 at the Ahmanson Theatre. The Ahmanson said the replacement was necessitated by “mutual artistic differences.”