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

THE ARTS

Getty’s Corzo Honored: Miguel Angel Corzo, director of the Getty Conservation Institute and the driving force behind the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s recent acquisition of the Lewin Collection of Modernist Mexican art, will be honored with the Medal for Patrons of the Arts by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Corzo is being honored for his distinguished arts career. Previous recipients include Nelson Mandela, King Juan Carlos of Spain, musician Lord Yehudi Menhuin and Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel.

TELEVISION

Cosby to Host ‘Kids’: Bill Cosby will host “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” a half-hour midseason series for CBS, the network announced Tuesday. The network, which has ordered 12 episodes of the series, will also broadcast a new one-hour installment of the show on Nov. 14. “Kids” was originally broadcast May 16 as a one-hour entertainment special, which was CBS’s fifth-highest-rated special during the 1996-97 season. The series will feature Cosby interviewing kids on such topics as parents, school and dating. Both series and special will also include classic clips from “Art Linkletter’s House Party” (1952-69), TV’s longest-running daytime variety show.

POP/ROCK

Eagles, Fleetwood Mac to Be Honored: The 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees won’t be announced until Oct. 30, but the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, two of the most popular Southern California bands in rock history, are among the acts that will be honored in the induction ceremony Jan. 12 in New York. Though both groups enjoyed their biggest commercial success in the 1970s, both have mounted lucrative reunion tours in the ‘90s.

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‘Candle’ in the Guinness: Just 37 days after its release, “Candle in the Wind ‘97”--Elton John’s tribute to Princess Diana--has been declared the world’s biggest-selling single recording. The Guinness Book of Records said Tuesday that nearly 31.8 million copies of the record had been shipped around the world. The shipment figure--the number of records ordered by stores--is always ahead of actual sales, but the Guinness Book of Records and Guinness Book of British Hit Singles issued a statement saying they had decided to accept the figure as the best estimate of sales to date. A statement said the figure was certainly more accurate than the 30 million estimate for the previous record-holder, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” which was compiled over 55 years and mostly before reliable accounting systems. Artists’ royalties and other profits from “Candle” will go to the fund set up to benefit Diana’s many charities.

MOVIES

DeMille Room: The new Cecil B. DeMille Research Room at USC’s Doheny Library is now open. The room houses a rare collection of many of the director’s scripts, awards and scrapbooks as well as a video library of his films such as “The Ten Commandments.” DeMille’s granddaughter CeCe DeMille Presley and her husband, Randall Presley, funded the room’s construction through the DeMille Foundation and have donated the memorabilia and documents.

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Documentary Awards: The International Documentary Assn. has named five 1997 Distinguished Achievement Award winners, along with the recipients of several other top awards. Included on the list is “The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century,” directed by KCET’s Blaine Blaggett, which took top honors in the limited series category. Feature directing winners are Thierry Michel (“Donka: The X-Ray of an African Hospital”) and William Gazecki (“Waco: The Rules of Engagement”). Catrine Clay’s “Love Story,” part of the BBC’s “Timewatch” series, was honored as best single program in an ongoing series.

QUICK TAKES

The cast of Anne Meara’s “After-Play,” opening at the Pasadena Playhouse Nov. 16, will feature Paul Dooley, Kenneth Mars, Marian Mercer and Susan Clark, in addition to the previously announced Beatrice Arthur. . . . Filmmaker Tim Burton will celebrate the publication of his new illustrated children’s book, “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories,” at Storyopolis Art Gallery and Bookstore at 5 p.m. today. . . . Veteran actors Bonnie Bartlett (“St. Elsewhere”) and John Cullum (“Northern Exposure”) join NBC’s “ER” Nov. 13 in recurring roles as the parents of Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards). . . . Johnny Mathis is adding a third and final performance Feb. 15 to his engagement at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.