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

STAGE

Zaks Joins ‘Capeman’ Crowd: Veteran Broadway director Jerry Zaks has been hired to help salvage Paul Simon’s troubled musical, “The Capeman.” Broadway rookie Mark Morris will remain the “director of record,” a spokesman said Monday. Zaks is a Tony winner who directed “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” and “Six Degrees of Separation.” “The Capeman,” the story of a notorious 1959 double homicide in New York, has been beset by problems. It was to have opened this week, but the opening was pushed back until Jan. 29.

TELEVISION

‘Sanders’ Without Shandling?: Maybe Garry Shandling can get a spot in the unemployment line behind Jerry Seinfeld. The comic says his upcoming season on the HBO sitcom “The Larry Sanders Show” will probably be his last. “There are episodes dealing with Larry’s leaving,” Shandling says in the Jan. 10 TV Guide. A recurring story line for the season starting March 15 features Shandling as talk-show host Sanders becoming increasingly afraid that his guest host--Jon Stewart, playing himself--will unseat Sanders and take over his time slot. That may not be too far from the truth. Shandling said “it’s possible” that the cable series will continue with Stewart as host, although other candidates are also being considered.

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Meanwhile, Seinfeld Explains Decision: Jerry Seinfeld--who announced last month that this would be the last season of “Seinfeld,” the longtime staple of NBC’s Thursday night lineup--told Time magazine that his stage instincts told him it was time to exit. “I just know from being on stage for years and years and years, there’s one moment where you have to feel the audience is still having a great time, and if you get off right there, they walk out of the theater excited,” Seinfeld said. “And yet, if you wait a little bit longer and try to give them more for their money, they walk out feeling not as good.” The comedian, who got started in front of live audiences, is heading back for more this summer, with a tour of Europe and Australia scheduled before he films an HBO special called “I’m Telling You for the Last Time.”

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Gifford Blasts Media: Kathie Lee Gifford on Monday lambasted the news media and defended Michael Kennedy, the late son-in-law of her husband, Frank Gifford. On her talk show “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee,” the co-host disputed news reports last year that Kennedy had had a sexual affair with his family’s baby sitter that began when the sitter was 14. Gifford said Kennedy had taken three lie detector tests administered by two experts that showed that the affair did not become sexual before the woman was 16, the legal age of consent in Massachusetts. “Now, that does not mean that what he did was right,” she said. But they proved Kennedy’s actions were not criminal, and “his children deserve to know that,” she said. She did not say who had the tests administered. Massachusetts authorities considered bringing statutory rape charges against Kennedy but decided to drop the case after the baby sitter, now 19, refused to press charges. Prosecutors would not say whether they had evidence that the relationship was sexual before the baby sitter was 16. Kennedy, 39, was killed New Year’s Eve in a skiing accident at Aspen, Colo.

POP/ROCK

Ancient Stones Unearthed: The Sunday Times of London says archivists and producers at the British Broadcasting Corp. have found more than 20 recordings from the Rolling Stones’ early days and that they might be released on an album. The songs were recorded for BBC radio between October 1963 and September 1965.

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Opry’s Grandpa Jones Hospitalized: Banjo-playing comedian Grandpa Jones, a fixture at the Grand Ole Opry since 1947, was reported in serious condition at a Nashville hospital Monday. The 84-year-old performer, whose given name is Louis Marshall Jones, was taken to Baptist Hospital after complaining of dizziness as he came off stage at the Opry on Saturday night. Opry House manager Jerry Strobel said Jones was in intensive care. The hospital listed his condition as serious but stable.

RADIO

Expanded Reach: Show-tunes station KGIL-AM (1260) has a new outlet on KGXL-AM (1650). According to Saul Levine, KGIL president and general manager, KGXL affords listeners in places such as Orange County and Long Beach the opportunity to hear the Broadway and Hollywood soundtracks played on the West Los Angeles-based KGIL. He noted that with its powerful expanded band, KGXL, which went on air Dec. 29, can also be heard at night in most of the western United States.

QUICK TAKES

The movie “Titanic” will sail onto television screens in the year 2000 under a reported $30-million deal negotiated by NBC. The network is buying the right to air the 20th Century Fox-Paramount film five times over a five-year window, Daily Variety reported Monday. A network spokeswoman declined comment. . . . Frank Sinatra, 82, will be honored with a special American Music Award during the Jan. 26 awards show on ABC. The Award of Merit, announced Monday, recognizes “outstanding contributions to the musical entertainment of the American public.”