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

TV & MOVIES

New UCLA Dean: UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television has a new dean: Robert Rosen, who has been chair of the school’s film and TV department since 1991 and also has been director of UCLA’s Film and Television Archive since 1975. Rosen succeeds the highly visible Gilbert Cates, who is stepping down after more than seven years as dean. However, Cates, perhaps best known as the producer of recent Academy Awards telecasts, will remain on the UCLA faculty and will continue as director of UCLA’s Geffen Playhouse. Cates called his successor “an excellent film archivist and critic” and “a devoted supporter and leader of our unique school.”

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‘Cousin Vinny’ Sings: Actor Joe Pesci, who won an Oscar for “GoodFellas,” is making a comedy-musical album reprising a different role--his turn as a neophyte lawyer in 1992’s “My Cousin Vinny.” Pesci has been holed up recently in a New York recording studio making the record, titled “Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You.” He apparently sings a variety of tunes, including a Christmas song and a rap number. The album will be released on Columbia Records, but it will not mark Pesci’s singing debut. In the 1960s, under the name Joe Ritchie, he cut an album called “Little Joe Sure Can Sing.” It flopped.

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Stern on Stern: Proclaiming himself “the savior of the Tiffany Network” and “Ed Sullivan on acid,” Howard Stern held an on-the-radio press conference Tuesday in which reporters phoned in their questions about “The Howard Stern Radio Show,” which premieres on some CBS-owned TV stations Saturday. Stern used the conference, which aired on his nationally syndicated morning radio show, to trash NBC’s long-running “Saturday Night Live,” predicting that he will beat “SNL” in major cities. “We deal in reality rather than a made-up sketch,” Stern said. “We don’t joke about lesbians! We bring in a real live lesbian!”

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Evening With Ian McKellen: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Los Angeles, will host “An Evening With Sir Ian McKellen” on Aug. 31 at the Writer’s Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. The 7 p.m. event will include an hourlong reception and a Q&A; session moderated by “Entertainment Tonight’s” Leonard Maltin. The two previous Wednesdays, including tonight, BAFTA LA will screen two of McKellen’s upcoming movies at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in West L.A.: “Apt Pupil” (tonight at 7 and 9:30) and “Gods and Monsters” (Aug. 26 at 7 and 9:30 p.m.). Tickets are $10 for each screening and $30 for the “Evening With” event. McKellen is currently appearing at the Ahmanson Theatre in “An Enemy of the People.”

POP/ROCK

N.W.A. Tribute: Rappers including Coolio, Harmony, Silkk the Shocker, Mack 10 and Big Punisher will be featured on “N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton 10th Anniversary Tribute,” an album covering the N.W.A. recording that Priority Records says “introduced gangster rap to mainstream America.” Due in stores Nov. 3, the album includes Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s rendition of “F--- Tha Police,” a song that got N.W.A.--whose members included Dr. Dre and Eazy-E--in trouble with authorities when it was originally released.

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NFL Music: National Football League stars Jerry Rice and Andre Rison and hot rookie quarterbacks Ryan Leaf and Peyton Manning are among the athletes exercising their vocal chords on “NFL Jams” and “NFL Country,” two albums due in stores Oct. 6 that pair players with musicians. The former includes the teaming of Rice and fellow San Francisco 49er Garrison Hearst with Boyz II Men, Rison on separate tracks with rappers Foxy Brown and Eightball, and Cincinnati Bengal Jeff Blake with Faith Evans. The latter’s lineup features Leaf with Kevin Sharp, Manning with Kenny Chesney and new Dallas Cowboys coach Joe Avezzano with Neal McCoy. Both albums also feature “We Are All in This Together,” a new NFL anthem done with large rosters of players and singers in a “We Are the World” style. The song and video will be used during all network pregame shows this season, as well as in public-service announcements marking the 25th year of the league’s association with the United Way.

ART

MOCA Gift: The Museum of Contemporary Art has received a $100,000 gift from actor Leonard Nimoy and his wife, Susan Bay, to fund the purchase of the complete photographic series “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” by Nan Goldin. Expanding the tradition of American documentary photography into an intimate, emotionally charged expose, the 125 prints acquired by MOCA picture the lives of the New York-based artist’s friends, family and community from 1973 to 1986. Goldin’s work was the subject of a traveling retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1996. Selections from the gift will be on view at MOCA from Aug. 30 to Oct. 25.

QUICK TAKES

For the first time, the late Frank Sinatra’s no-holds-barred 1965 CBS News interview with Walter Cronkite will be available on video when CBS Video releases “Frank Sinatra: Off the Record,” on Aug. 25. In addition to the interview, the 45-minute video (suggested retail price: $14.95) will also include other footage from 1965: a rare tape of Ol’ Blue Eyes at work in his recording studio and scenes from a Rat Pack benefit performance. . . . Priority Records has filed a $10-million suit against A&M; Records, claiming A&M; failed to get permission to use songs by rappers Ice Cube and Mack 10 that were included on the soundtrack to “The Players Club,” which was released in April. Both rappers appeared in the movie, but Priority contends that it owned the songs used on the soundtrack. . . . Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus will take his “Achy Breaky Heart” to Glendale’s Alex Theatre for a one-night concert appearance on Oct. 16. Tickets are on sale now. . . . Rocker Marilyn Manson has been added to the list of performers for the Sept. 10 MTV Video Music Awards.