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

MOVIES

Stay Out of the Shower: Recent Oscar nominee Gus Van Sant (“Good Will Hunting”) is set to direct an updated version of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic “Psycho” for Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures. The film will use the same script shot by Hitchcock. But this time, of course, the movie will be in color. The film is said to be on a “fast track,” with shooting to begin in the coming months. No casting has been announced.

TELEVISION

Saturday Night Stern: Howard Stern is expected to announce today that he will begin a weekly late-night TV talk show for CBS stations starting this summer. The show--which will go against NBC’s long-running “Saturday Night Live” and Fox’s newer “Mad TV”--will be distributed by CBS’ Eyemark Entertainment. All of the CBS owned-and-operated stations--including L.A.’s KCBS-TV Channel 2--will carry the show, sources said, although it’s not clear how it will be received by CBS affiliates in conservative markets. Stern’s weekday radio show, which airs on KLSX-FM (97.1), is currently rated No. 1 in Los Angeles.

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‘Seinfeld’ Viewing Party: “Seinfeld” fans will congregate at the Palace in Hollywood for a farewell party and viewing of the series finale on May 14. The event, a benefit for the Family Assistance Program, will include a light dinner, trivia and cast look-alike contests and an auction of items, including signed scripts, signed Kramer T-shirts, a Seinfeld mountain bike and a big-screen TV. Tickets to the event, dubbed “An Evening About Nothing,” are $60 and available through Ticketmaster.

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‘Monsters’ Less Scary Now: A Japanese television network plans to resume broadcasts next month of a popular cartoon taken off the air last year after it was blamed for triggering convulsions among hundreds of young viewers. More than 700 children across Japan were rushed to hospitals in December after watching a “Pocket Monsters” segment featuring bright flashing lights. TV Tokyo said it would bring back new--and presumably less flashy--episodes of the top-rated show as early as April 16. The network said it will explain the problem with the original “Pocket Monsters” before the cartoon is shown again.

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Tell Congress About It: Cable’s Lifetime Television has joined with the co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues and representatives from leading national advocacy groups to launch “Caring for Kids: Our Lifetime Commitment,” an effort to involve women in a national debate on child care. The initiative includes a toll-free number (1 [800] 522-0925) and an interactive Web site (https://www.lifetimetv.com) where women and their families can share their stories, messages and photographs on child care and add their voices to those being heard by Congress. The coalition of advocacy organizations joining Lifetime Television in its “Caring for Kids” campaign include the YWCA, Child Welfare League of America, Camp Fire Boys and Girls, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Girl Scouts of the USA, Goodwill Industries International, National Women’s Law Center, the Salvation Army and NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.

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WB Premieres: The WB network will premiere “You’re the One,” a new comedy starring former “Northern Exposure” star Cynthia Geary, on April 19 in the 9:30 p.m. Sunday time slot. Then on April 20, the new Shelley Long comedy “Kelly Kelly” premieres in the 9 p.m. Monday period, followed at 9:30 by the Carol Leifer comedy “Alright Already,” which is moving to Mondays, having previously aired on Sundays.

QUICK TAKES

ABC will air the network premiere of the Whitney Houston movie “Waiting to Exhale” on May 3 at 9 p.m. . . . Cable’s E! Entertainment Television will premiere “Robert Downey Jr.: The E! True Hollywood Story” on April 12 from 8 to 9 p.m. . . . Actress Joan Plowright has joined the cast of Nathan Lane’s upcoming NBC comedy “Encore.” Plowright will play the mother of Lane’s character. . . . NBC will premiere “One World,” a half-hour comedy series about six racially diverse teens living together with their adoptive parents, in September as part of the network’s Saturday morning block of teen programming. . . . Ken Burns has been granted $200,000 from the state of New York to help fund his upcoming PBS film on the lives of women’s rights pioneers Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. . . . Cable’s Lifetime Television will carry “Major Crime,” a Canadian miniseries with former “Law & Order” star Michael Moriarty, on April 19 from 6 to 10 p.m. . . . “Michael Crawford in Concert,” featuring the original “Phantom of the Opera” star in a performance taped at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, will be released on Warner Home Video on April 21. . . . “Stomp” has been booked for a July 14-Aug. 2 engagement at UCLA’s soon-to-be-reopened Royce Hall. . . . Jack Lemmon will receive the John Wayne Cancer Institute’s Duke Award for special service on Saturday at the Beverly Hilton. Lemmon, a friend of the late John Wayne, was chosen for his humanitarian efforts and his work on behalf of the institute. . . . PBS got into the April Fools’ spirit with a news release embargoed for today announcing that the network will launch a “sfmmeubltibillioekcn-dollar” corporate takeover of media giant Time Warner, funded through on-air pledge appeals and a concert featuring artists with only one name. And, PBS jokes, “our pledge is all pledge, all day, all night, all over the world.”