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

TELEVISION

Remembering Kuralt: Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley and Andy Rooney were among those who eulogized longtime CBS newsman Charles Kuralt as a television master at a memorial service Wednesday in New York. Kuralt--who died on July 4 at age 62--was remembered as a journalist who put ordinary people at ease and then wrote about them eloquently in TV essays that were carefully matched to video images. “Charles Kuralt did everything in television better than anyone else,” Rooney said. “In his own medium, television, Charles was as good as Mark Twain.”

‘Arsenio’ May Land on Fox: “Arsenio,” the low-rated ABC comedy starring Arsenio Hall that was yanked off the air after a few weeks for retooling and a possible return, is officially dead at the network, ABC executives said Wednesday. However, the Fox network said it has been in discussions with DreamWorks, which produces the show, to pick up the series.

STAGE

Larson Estate Victory: A federal judge in New York ruled Wednesday that Lynn M. Thomson, a dramaturge who worked on the hit musical “Rent,” was not entitled to 16% of late author Jonathan Larson’s royalties from the show--or, indeed, anything beyond her initial fee. Judge Lewis Kaplan expressed “genuine sorrow” that the case had gone to court. Thomson plans to appeal.

QUICK TAKES

The National Endowment for the Arts continued its resurrection in the Senate Wednesday when the Labor and Human Resources Committee voted to reauthorize the agency for five years, with a suggested maximum 1998 budget of $105 million. On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to give the NEA $100 million for 1998; both measures will now go before the full Senate, where approval is considered likely. The House had previously voted to shut down the agency, so the two houses would have to hammer out a compromise. . . . When Geraldo Rivera takes a six-week vacation starting Monday, guest hosts on CNBC’s “Rivera Live” will include O.J. Simpson prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden, Menendez brothers’ defense attorney Leslie Abramson and KABC-AM (790)’s Larry Elder. . . . The Artist Formerly Known as Prince is releasing his next music package, “Crystal Ball,” over the Internet (https://love4oneanother.com) and by phone, (800) NEW-FUNK. The $50, four-CD set contains material previously available only through bootleggers. . . . Sony Pictures has settled its lawsuit against John Travolta over his pulling out of the Roman Polanski movie “The Double.” Sources say Sony and Travolta will find another film to do jointly.