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

POP/ROCK

Grammy Crasher Unmasked: So who was that shirtless man, with “Soy Bomb” written across his torso, who jumped onstage and gyrated wildly during Bob Dylan’s performance Wednesday at the Grammy Awards? It was Michael Portnoy, a 26-year-old New York performance artist who said Thursday that the whole thing was a publicity stunt to jump-start his career. Portnoy said he was one of the extras hired to sit behind Dylan “to provide a good vibe for him.” After the song started, “I jumped up and gave Mr. Dylan a new kind of vibe,” he said. And what about the message written on his skin? “Soy, which I’m so very fond of, represents to me dense nutritional life,” Portnoy said. “Bomb is, obviously, an explosive, destructive force. So, soy bomb is what I think art should be: dense, explosive art.” After being led off stage and taken outside Radio City Music Hall, Portnoy said, he returned to try to collect his shirt and overcoat. “But the cops didn’t know what had happened inside,” he said, “and they thought I was some lunatic who wasn’t wearing a shirt.” Portnoy was one of two unscripted interruptions; Wu Tang Clan rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard also claimed the stage out of turn at one point. Meanwhile, more than 25 million viewers tuned into the show, marking the Grammy’s highest TV ratings in five years, CBS said.

MOVIES

Lots of Angels: “Anastasia,” the first animated musical from 20th Century Fox, picked up the Gold Angel Award for the year’s best film at the 21st annual International Angel Awards held in Hollywood Thursday. Other Gold Angels went to three CBS TV series “Touched by an Angel” (best inspirational series), “Everybody Loves Raymond” (best new comedy) and “‘Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” (best drama). PBS’ “Sesame Street” was honored as best children’s program and NBC’s “Law & Order” was named best suspense series. Fred Rogers (“Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”) and Jane Seymour (“Dr. Quinn”) picked up Lifetime Achievement Awards in recognition of their concern for the well-being of the nation’s youth. The awards--voted by members of the National Assn. for Family and Community Education and the Excellence in Media group--honor programming with “moral and/or social content.”

More ‘Titanic’ Kudos: This year’s Beatrice Wood Film Award goes to James Cameron for “Titanic,” with special recognition for his willingness to give up his director’s fee for the costly film in order to realize his vision. Cameron was selected by past recipients, directors Hubert Cornfield, Robert Allan Ackerman, Henry Jaglom and Billy Bob Thornton. The award will be presented at Wood’s studio in Ojai on March 6. Cameron and “Titanic,” meanwhile, already have ties to Wood: Cameron interviewed the famed centenarian sculptor two years ago when he was creating the role of 101-year-old Rose, played by Oscar nominee Gloria Stuart.

TELEVISION

Ratings Study: In a survey of three weeks of prime-time network programming, a conservative media watch group found that a majority of shows that contained what they considered to be either an obscenity or a sexual innuendo did not carry an “L” ratings symbol to denote foul language or a “D” for suggestive dialogue. The survey, conducted by the Parents Television Council, a project of the Virginia-based Media Research Center, covered 85 hours of programming aired this fall on CBS, ABC, Fox, WB and UPN.

When Gossip Columnists Attack!: Cable’s Fox News Channel has signed Matt Drudge, the Internet gossip columnist who dared to go where Newsweek balked when he broke the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal. Drudge will host a weekly celebrity news show, which the network described as “a lively debate with the nation’s leading gossip columnists revealing the hottest items that are only privy to the most connected insiders.” A premiere date has not been set.

STAGE

La Jolla Slate: Athol Fugard will co-direct and appear in his new “The Captain’s Tiger” at La Jolla Playhouse, July 12-Aug. 9. The 1998 season also will include: “Nora,” Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of “A Doll’s House,” May 24-June 21; Karen Trott’s solo “Guitar Lessons: The Springhill Singing Disaster,” May 31-June 28; a performance piece from London called “Improbable Theatre’s 70 Hill Lane,” July 26-Aug. 23; Moss Hart’s “Light Up the Sky,” directed by Neel Keller, Aug. 30-Sept. 27; and the premiere of “Dogeaters,” by Jessica Hagedorn, Sept. 13-Oct. 11.

QUICK TAKES

A day in the recording studio with Babyface, lunch with Cindy Crawford, dinner with Sam Donaldson, a pickup game with Shaquille O’Neal and dinner for 10 cooked in your home by Wolfgang Puck are among the items up for grabs Thursday at “A Night for Hope,” a City of Hope benefit auction being held at 7 p.m. at Christie’s Beverly Hills showroom. Tickets are $25. . . . Talk-show host Jerry Springer will host Fox’s “Mad TV” on Saturday. And country singer Garth Brooks will do double duty on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” acting as both host and musical guest.