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

THE ARTS

And the Praemium Imperiale Goes To: Richard Meier, the American architect who designed Los Angeles’ new Getty Center that opens in December, is among five 1997 winners of the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Awards, given annually for outstanding lifetime achievement in the arts. Other honorees are New Jersey-based sculptor George Segal, German painter Gerhard Richter, British theater and film director Peter Brook and Indian musician Ravi Shankar. The awards, which carry a $150,000 prize for each honoree, were established in 1989 to honor those in fields not covered by the Nobel Prizes. The winners, announced this morning in Rome, were selected by the Japan Art Assn., which received recommendations from a panel of international advisors.

TELEVISION

Have Parents, Will Advise: NBC on Tuesday began readying viewers for the fall TV season with the start of promotional spots featuring famous TV moms and dads giving advice to new parents Paul and Jamie Buchman (Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt), whose new baby will be much of the focus of this season’s “Mad About You.” Among those participating in the promotion, Roseanne (“Roseanne”), Tom Bosley and Marion Ross (“Happy Days”), Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford (“The Jeffersons”), June Lockhart (“Lassie”), Barbara Billingsley (“Leave It to Beaver”), Florence Henderson (“The Brady Bunch”), Shirley Jones (“The Partridge Family”) and Dick Van Patten (“Eight Is Enough”).

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Pet TV: Animal lovers will have a new viewing option next month with the debut of My Pet TV Network, a new cable channel allied with the Humane Society of the United States. The channel, which premieres the week of Aug. 4, will be available initially for one hour a day over several local cable systems, including Century Communications, Cox Communications, Time Warner, TCI and Comcast. The channel, which aims to expand to 24 hours a day in May, will offer programs such as “Petsville USA,” with money-saving tips from “Veterinarian to the Stars” Dr. Jeffrey Werber; “Two Tails Up,” a showcase of motion pictures centered around animals; and “Hollywood’s Rich & Furry,” focusing on celebrities and their pampered pets. Instructional and how-to fare, such as “Welcome Home Your New Dog/New Cat,” also will be featured.

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George, George, Everywhere: Cable’s Cartoon Network will celebrate the 30th anniversary of “George of the Jungle” with a three-hour marathon of the original cartoon series Saturday from 1-4 p.m. That’s in addition to the series’ regular time slot, Mondays through Fridays at 9 a.m. Not-so-coincidentally, Disney’s new live-action movie “George of the Jungle” starring Brendan Fraser opens in theaters next Wednesday.

POP/ROCK

Motley Crue Suit: The reunited rock band Motley Crue, whose “Generation Swine” album debuted at No. 4 on the pop chart last week, has been sued by John Corabi, who was the group’s lead singer before the recent return of original front man Vince Neil. The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, which seeks at least $4 million from the rock group and its record label, Elektra Entertainment, contends that band members Tommy Lee, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx pretended Corabi was still in the group, then refused to pay him for work done on the new album. Corabi claims that he contributed to or composed “at least 80%” of the music on “Generation Swine” and got no credit for his guitar work on the album. An Elektra spokesman declined to comment on the suit. Neil filed a nearly identical lawsuit against Motley Crue after he was fired from the band in 1992, but the complaint was settled last year, before the band’s reunion.

QUICK TAKES

Cable’s Court TV will carry live coverage today (beginning at 9:15 a.m.) of the Nevada Athletic Commission hearing to determine any repercussions against heavyweight fighter Mike Tyson for biting the ear of Evander Holyfield during the June 28 championship fight. . . . Robert Zemeckis (“Forrest Gump,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Contact”) joined the company of Charles Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille and Steven Spielberg on Tuesday when he became the eighth movie director to cast his hand and footprints in the cement at Mann’s Chinese Theater. . . . “Promises, Promises,” with Jason Alexander, Alan Thicke and Jean Smart, will return to UCLA’s Freud Playhouse for 14 performances, Aug. 14-24. Tickets for the musical, which sold out in May, go on sale Friday. . . . “Star Trek: The Next Generation” star Brent Spiner will conduct a live online chat today at 8 p.m. at https://www.tvguide.com/chat. . . . The producers of “America’s Dumbest Criminals,” which airs Sundays at 3 p.m. on KNBC-TV Channel 4, are seeking “funny stories of inept criminals, bungling burglars and accident prone would-be-crooks.” Series creator Daniel Butler will be in Santa Monica today filming interviews for possible inclusion in the series; for an appointment, call (310) 998-5844.