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

MOVIES

Honoring Acting, AIDS Activism: Elizabeth Taylor will receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award during the annual SAG awards, airing March 8 on cable’s TNT. Taylor, 65, will be the 34th recipient of the award, which honors both career achievement and humanitarian efforts. Past recipients have included Robert Redford, Audrey Hepburn, George Burns, Katharine Hepburn and Frank Sinatra. Taylor previously received the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 1993.

TELEVISION

CBS Suit: The Miami Beach nightclub La Luna has sued CBS for $3 million, claiming an Oct. 29 newscast wrongly suggested the spot was a hangout for the Russian mob. La Luna’s owners claim they were told by the network that the club would be photographed for a segment on night life, but the footage of La Luna patrons and employees instead appeared as the opening segment of a news story on the mob, with a voice-over of Dan Rather asking, “Who are these people? Are they hard-working immigrants or from Russia’s violent underworld?” Although CBS did not name the restaurant and never said the establishment had anything to do with the mob, the suit says the business has been losing money ever since the broadcast. A CBS spokeswoman cited a network policy against commenting on pending litigation.

New Cast Member: Actress Jennifer Beals, best known for her starring role in the 1983 film “Flashdance,” has joined the cast of ABC’s controversial priest drama, “Nothing Sacred.” She’ll play the parish’s “strong-willed” director of religious eduction. “Nothing Sacred” moves to Saturdays at 8 p.m. starting this weekend.

‘Godzilla,’ ‘Hercules’ and Friends: The Fox network will add eight new animated series and two new live-action adventures to its kids’ programming slates in the fall. New revivals of two classics, “Mr. Potato Head” and “Woody Woodpecker,” are among the shows to be added to the Saturday morning schedule, along with an animated version of the upcoming mega-budget feature film “Godzilla,” a “swash-buckling comic misadventure” called “Mad Jack” and Marvel Comics’ “Captain America.” New to Fox’s weekday schedule will be PBS’ award-winning educational series “Scholastic’s the Magic School Bus”; the animated “The Space Goofs & Oggy Show” and “Spy Dogs”; a live-action mythical Celtic adventure, “Mystic Knights”; and “Young Hercules,” a live-action prequel to Kevin Sorbo’s hit syndicated series, “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.”

POP/ROCK

Haggard Not Hanging Up His Hat: Country singer Merle Haggard opened a three-night stand at Santa Ana’s Crazy Horse Steak House on Monday with good news for his fans: His current tour, which has been widely promoted as his “Farewell Tour,” will not be his last. “No, I’ve got too many taxes to pay,” Haggard told The Times after Monday’s show. “I’ll never get away from doing this. So you can squash that story.” He traced reports of his pending retirement to two events: Heart surgery he underwent in July and a flippant remark to a fan club official about hanging up his tour bus.

Tommy Lee Sentenced: Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee was ordered to complete a 12-hour anger management program and serve 250 hours of community service after pleading no contest Monday to misdemeanor battery charges for injuring a photographer outside the Viper Room nightclub in Hollywood. Lee was also ordered to pay $17,500 in restitution to Henry Trappler, who suffered a broken pelvis and left rib in the September 1996 incident.

THE ARTS

State of the Music Center: Music Center Chairman Andrea Van de Kamp, L.A. Philharmonic Managing Director Ernest Fleischmann and L.A. Opera Managing Director Peter Hemmings are among those scheduled to take part in the Second Annual State of the Arts program on Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. This year’s focus is “As the Music Center Moves Into the 21st Century.” Additional scheduled participants include Center Theatre Group Producing Director Bob Egan, Music Center Operating Co. President Sandra Kimberling, Music Center Executive Vice President Nicholas T. Goldsborough and retired TV news anchor Jess Marlow. Admission is free.

QUICK TAKES

The Spice Girls topped Mr. Blackwell’s 38th Annual Worst Dressed Women List released Tuesday. Ellen DeGeneres was No. 2, followed by Madonna. . . . Actor Don Johnson and two former employees who accused him of sexual harassment have settled their civil suits against each other, the San Francisco Examiner reported Tuesday. The women filed their lawsuit after Johnson filed his own claim accusing them of trying to extort money from him. . . . All 22 Fox stations nationwide have renewed the syndicated “Keenen Ivory Wayans Show” for the 1998-99 season. It is not known how the renewal will affect Fox’s own upcoming late-night talk show. That program, to be hosted by Magic Johnson, is scheduled to premiere in June. The former Lakers star, meanwhile, has signed with the William Morris Agency, where 15 agents will advise him on business and entertainment pursuits. . . . A Los Angeles U.S. District Court judge has dismissed writers John and Katherine Celli’s lawsuit over last summer’s hit movie “Air Force One.” The Cellis had alleged that the film was based on a story treatment they had written.