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

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Testimonials Headed to Berlin?: The latest idea for Germany’s much-debated national Holocaust memorial would join an existing exhibit of Third Reich terror with Steven Spielberg’s filmed interviews of Holocaust survivors. The plan, pushed by Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen, would combine Spielberg’s Shoah Visual History Foundation archive--which includes nearly 50,000 filmed interviews--with the Topography of Terror, an exhibit of Third Reich documents and photographs housed in the cellar of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters, where Nazis tortured political prisoners. Spielberg reportedly has already offered to house his archive in Berlin.

Travolta Lauded: John Travolta will receive the Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Charles A. Crain Career Achievement Award during the festival’s awards gala on Jan. 9. Travolta, lauded as “an icon of both the American screen and consciousness” by festival executive director Craig Prater, follows previous recipients including Sylvester Stallone, Richard Dreyfuss and Susan Sarandon.

Record Clocked: Sotheby’s New York auction house took in more than $12.6 million for 10 paintings of racing scenes by British artist Sir Alfred J. Munnings that had been put up for sale by Santa Anita Park. The total was within Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate of $10 million to $13 million. “Why Weren’t You Out Yesterday?,” a 1947 painting of three women taking a break from the hunt, set a record for the artist, fetching nearly $2.8 million. The racetrack opted to sell the paintings because they had become too valuable to keep; the track’s L.A. Turf Club, where they used to hang, is now decorated by copies of the paintings.

QUICK TAKES

Los Angeles’ KMEX-TV plans to launch the nation’s first one-hour Spanish-language morning newscast on Jan. 4. The 6 a.m. show, to be anchored by Antonio Valverde and Nancy Agosto, will be called “Noticias 34: Primera Edicion.” . . . The Nathan Lane comedy “Encore! Encore!”--benched for the November ratings sweeps--will return to NBC’s schedule on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m., beginning Dec. 10. . . . Johnny Cash, songwriter Jeff Barry (“Sugar, Sugar”) and former Beach Boy Brian Wilson received Lifetime Achievement Awards Wednesday from the National Academy of Songwriters, during ceremonies in Beverly Hills. . . . A South Carolina woman arrested at David Letterman’s Connecticut home has been placed on probation for a year and told to stay away from the late-night talk-show host. Postal Service worker Nellie Ruth Shirley, 39, was arrested Sept. 28, a week before the suicide of Margaret Ray, who had drawn headlines--and jokes from Letterman--for repeatedly trespassing at his home.