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

ART

Met to Honor Versace: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art said Friday that it is planning an exhibition celebrating the work of slain fashion designer Gianni Versace. The exhibition will be on view Dec. 11-March 22 and will also be the centerpiece of the museum’s annual celebrity-studded Costume Institute gala being held Dec. 8. Included will be a small retrospective of the designer’s major themes and pieces, tracing his inspirations from Greek and Roman classicism, 18th century court styles, Pop artist Andy Warhol and modern abstract art.

MOCA Honor: Los Angeles-based photographer Catherine Opie has been named the first winner of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s new Emerging Artist Award. The annual honor was created by MOCA and the Citybank Private Bank to bring attention to emerging Southern California artists. In conjunction with the award, two bodies of Opie’s work will be shown at MOCA from Oct. 5-Jan. 4. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog, and the museum will purchase an Opie work for its permanent collection.

TV & MOVIES

Latinos and Disney: Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) and Solomon P. Ortiz (D-Texas), members of a newly formed Congressional Hispanic Caucus Task Force on Arts and Entertainment, met in Washington Thursday with Walt Disney Co. executives to discuss the status of Latinos in the industry and how to increase their participation in front of and behind the camera. Roybal-Allard spokeswoman Sherry Greenberg said the caucus, which also includes Rep. Nydia Velasquez (D-N.Y.), hopes to eventually meet with all studios and TV networks; meetings with NBC and DreamWorks SKG executives are already scheduled for next week. “The approach they’re trying to take is a positive one, not . . . [chastising] for what was done in the past,” Greenberg said, noting that caucus members stress the “burgeoning market” of Latinos and the belief that appealing to them will result in increased viewership. Because of that “positive” focus, Greenberg said, the meeting with Disney executives William J. Wilkinson and Richard Bates did not include any discussion of a boycott against the firm that was recently launched by the National Hispanic Media Coalition because of what that group said was a lack of Latinos employed by Disney-owned ABC.

Jeter Discusses HIV: Actor Michael Jeter (“Evening Shade”) discloses on Monday’s “Entertainment Tonight” that he was diagnosed last year as HIV-positive. “I’m not dying from AIDS, I’m living with HIV,” says Jeter, an openly gay actor who calls his diagnosis “some of the best news I have ever gotten, because it’s a wake-up call. . . . It was God’s way of saying, ‘You stupid idiot, look what you are doing with your time.’ ” Jeter adds that he is “in excellent health” and that medicine is keeping the disease at bay.

POP/ROCK

Mugging: John Tesh, who left his co-host spot on TV’s “Entertainment Tonight” to focus on his new age music, is now foraging into another medium--the trading card business. Showing a sense of humor, the composer-pianist is releasing a series of six cards--created by political cartoonist Stephen Breen--with Tesh’s enlarged, bearded head atop various sports poses, including the one at left, which invokes memories of his work as a gymnastics announcer at the Atlanta Olympics. Other cards--which all incorporate piano keyboards or musical notes in some way--show him playing basketball, tennis, cycling, running and diving. The cards will be released in conjunction with Tesh’s upcoming CD, “Victory: The Sports Collection,” due in stores Aug. 5. Two of the trading cards will be included in each CD.

Fit for a King: Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley hosted about 400 invited guests--including singer Jewel, who performed--Thursday night at an opening bash for Elvis Presley’s Memphis, the first nightclub run by Presley’s estate. The two-story Tennessee club is filled with Presley memorabilia and offers a menu of the King’s favorite dishes--including peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches.

QUICK TAKES

Radio’s Michael Jackson, whose last weekday show on KABC-AM (790) aired July 3 after a run of more than 30 years, begins his new weekend slot on KABC today from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. His guests will be actor Carroll O’Connor and attorney Leslie Abramson. . . . Bassist Rick Danko, a Hall of Fame inductee with his group the Band, was found guilty by a Japanese court Friday of smuggling a small amount of heroin into the country, but received a suspended 30-month prison sentence and won’t go to jail as long as he doesn’t commit any crimes in Japan within the next five years. . . . Banned From Utopia, an “alumni band” made up of musicians who previously played with the late Frank Zappa, will perform two shows of the musician-composer’s works tonight at 9:30 and 11:30 at Baked Potato in Studio City. Mark Miller, the event organizer, who will take over Zappa’s solos, hopes to make the “all Zappa” night a monthly series. Admission is $10.