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

TELEVISION

One Up, One Down: The premiere of “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place,” paired with “The Drew Carey Show,” delivered for ABC Wednesday. “Drew” attracted more than 20 million viewers at 9 p.m.--its second-biggest audience ever--and nearly 18 million remained for the new 9:30 p.m. series “Two Guys,” a significantly higher percentage than had been staying for “Ellen” in that time slot. Meanwhile, Fox’s new drama, “Significant Others,” got off to a poor start, drawing 7.1 million viewers from 9 to 10 p.m., more than 30% below the average attained in that spot by the show it has temporarily replaced, “Party of Five.”

MOVIES

It Sure Ain’t Hollywood: Maryland’s tiny Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay has refused to allow the scheduled filming of Warner Bros.’ romantic drama “Message in a Bottle,” unless the sex, four-letter words and drinking are edited out, Mayor Dewey Crockett said Wednesday. Warner Bros. had planned to film on the island starting next week. But the six-member town council voted to deny filming permits, despite the protests of some residents excited at the prospect of stars Paul Newman and Kevin Costner coming to town. “It was the cursing . . . the using of alcoholic beverages . . . and the sex scenes,” Crockett said. “We told them to clean it up and rewrite it, and we certainly would reconsider.” Warner Bros. said it will find a different site.

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‘Rubies’ Protest: About 20 New York Jews--led by state representative Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn)--demonstrated in the Big Apple Wednesday against the scheduled March 25 release of Miramax Films’ “A Price Above Rubies,” accusing the movie of being anti-Jewish. “This movie presents horrible stereotypes of the Orthodox community,” said Hikind. “Hollywood has no qualms about portraying our communities as populated by lying, thieving and immoral individuals.” The movie stars Renee Zellweger as a Hasidic woman who questions her faith and struggles with sexual longing. Its director, Boaz Yakin--who called himself “proud of being a Jew”--rejected the criticism, saying the film deals with a story of unrequited love. “This is just a film about human beings, acting like human beings,” he said.

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La Raza Nominees: “Fools Rush In,” “Selena,” “The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca” and “The End of Violence” will compete for outstanding feature film at the National Council of La Raza’s 1998 American Latino Media Arts Awards, to be held April 19 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Nominated for outstanding TV drama series, meanwhile, are NBC’s “Law & Order,” CBS’ “Nash Bridges,” Fox’s “‘New York Undercover” and ABC’s “Nothing Sacred,” “NYPD Blue” and “Dangerous Minds.” Comedy series nominees are the WB’s “Steve Harvey Show” and NBC’s “Suddenly Susan,” “The Tony Danza Show” and “Union Square.” (“Dangerous Minds,” “Tony Danza” and “Union Square” have all been canceled by their networks because of poor ratings.)

POP/ROCK

Henley Heading UCLA Gala: Singer Don Henley is putting together an “all-star band” to perform at the April 4 reopening of UCLA’s Royce Hall. “Encore--Celebrate the Return to Royce Hall” will also feature flutists James and Jeanne Galway, accompanied by Christopher Riley, and actors Carol Burnett, John Lithgow and Paul Reiser. Tickets to the show are $75.

Sharing Their Dreams: The British rock group Spacehog and rapper Imani Coppola will be at Sunset Boulevard’s Guitar Center today to present prizes, including EMI Publishing contracts, to winners of the first John Lennon Songwriting Contest. The worldwide competition, which contained 12 categories judged by the likes of Elton John, the Fugees, Luther Vandross, Brooks & Dunn and Joan Osborne, was launched by music executive David Sonenberg and Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, to help “encourage, inspire and help the songwriters of the world to share their dreams with us.” Several winners are from the L.A. area: Molly Pasutti of Tarzana (world music category), Renee Goldsberry & Andreas Geck of Burbank (rock), Peter Leslie of Los Angeles (R&B;) and Josh Bernard of Sherman Oaks (country). Applications for next year’s John Lennon Songwriting Contest are available at (888) 884-JLSC.

QUICK TAKES

Tickets sales for the Bob Dylan-Joni Mitchell concerts May 21 and 22 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion and May 23 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim have been delayed by one week. Seats will now go on sale March 23 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster. . . . Spanish-language pop superstar Chayanne will perform April 26 at Fiesta Broadway, the singer’s spokeswoman said. The Grammy-nominated Puerto Rican artist, who has 28 gold records, is the biggest name yet to appear at the 9-year-old downtown L.A. Cinco de Mayo street festival. . . . Janet Jackson’s “Velvet Rope” tour will kick off July 9 in Washington and culminate with an Oct. 11 HBO telecast from New York’s Madison Square Garden. Local dates have not yet been announced. . . . Citing “the safety of our passengers and our staff” Cathay Pacific Airways says it has banned Oasis singer Liam Gallagher from all future flights. The airline says that members of the band and its 30-member entourage behaved so badly on a flight from Hong Kong to Australia that the pilot threatened to divert the plane and have the group removed. . . . “Seinfeld” star Jason Alexander will co-host with Peter Tilden on this morning’s “Minyard & Tilden” radio show from 5 to 9 a.m. on KABC-AM (790). Tilden says Alexander has been overheard saying that he’d like to try a radio gig after “Seinfeld” ends.