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

MOVIES & TV

‘Duets’ Called Off: First the engagement, now the movie. Columbia Pictures said Wednesday that it will not make “Duets,” which was to have starred former sweethearts Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow. Although Columbia did not announce specific reasons for calling off the film, which was to have begun production in September, director-producer Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth’s father, told the Hollywood Reporter that the former couple “need to not have this hanging over them. . . . I felt it was not fair for [Pitt] to do this at this time, and it wasn’t fair for Gwyneth.”

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First Emmys: ABC’s “March Against Drugs” public service campaign and HBO’s annual “Comic Relief” specials hosted by Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg have both been voted 1997 Governors Emmy Awards by the TV Academy’s board of governors. Also receiving a 1997 Governors Emmy is Jack Venza, executive producer of PBS’ “Great Performances.” The awards, honoring “achievements of current distinction,” will be presented in Pasadena Sept. 7, one week before the televised Emmy Awards on CBS.

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No Longer Blue: David Caruso--who stirred controversy three summers ago when he quit ABC’s “NYPD Blue” to go into movies--confessed before a gathering of TV writers in Pasadena Wednesday that “he could have been more of an adult” in handling the situation. Caruso, who plays an ex-cop turned federal prosecutor in CBS’s upcoming “Michael Hayes,” which he also executive-produces, said money wasn’t the issue with “NYPD Blue.” Instead he wanted a longer hiatus from the series (and thus more time for movie making), which he will have on “Michael Hayes.” His movies, to date, have fared poorly at the box office.

QUICK TAKES

The Video Software Dealers Assn. has filed a federal class-action suit against Oklahoma City police, accusing them of conducting an illegal search and seizure last month after a lower court ruled that the 1979 Oscar winner for best foreign film, “The Tin Drum,” was obscene because one scene implies that a young boy performs oral sex on a teenage girl. Police confiscated copies of the movie from Oklahoma City Video stores hours after the ruling. . . . Chicago blues legend Luther Allison, who won three W.C. Handy Blues Awards in May, including his second for entertainer of the year, has been found to have lung cancer and brain tumors. Allison, 57, was on a three-month tour when the diagnosis was made. He has canceled remaining dates, including Aug. 30 at the Long Beach Blues Festival. . . . “Ragtime” has been extended at the Shubert Theatre until Nov. 2; it had been set to close on Sept. 14. Tickets for the new dates go on sale Friday.