ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

POP/ROCK

Producer Charged in Beating: Rap producer Derek “D-Dot” Angellettie and another man were arrested in New York Thursday on charges that they beat the editor in chief of the hip-hop music magazine Blaze. Jesse Washington, 29, claims he was beaten Monday because his magazine published a photograph identifying Angellettie as the anonymous performer known as the Madd Rapper. Angellettie and Anthony Hubbard, both 30, were charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon after voluntarily submitting to questioning, police said. Angellettie is part of rap mogul Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs’ group of producers known as “the Hit Men,” and the Madd Rapper’s debut album is scheduled to be released by Combs’ label, Bad Boy. However, Washington said he was certain Combs had nothing to do with the beating incident.

MOVIES

Play Along With Bruce: Bruce Willis’ latest production comes out today, but it’s not a movie, it’s a video game. Willis stars in Apocalypse, a Sony PlayStation game in which players take over Willis’ 3-D character, a “pistol-packing nanophysicist,” to defeat Death, Plague, War and the Beast--a.k.a. the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Activision, the game’s maker, said it is the first video game to feature a star of Willis’ capacity.

STAGE

Edwards Confirms Andrews’ Voice Problems: It appears that the rumors are true: Julie Andrews, 63, may never sing again after having surgery last year to remove noncancerous throat nodules. “I don’t think she’ll sing again--it’s an absolute tragedy,” Andrews’ husband, director Blake Edwards, told Parade magazine. “She was told she’d be OK in six weeks, the voice would actually be better. [But] it’s over a year, and if you heard it, you’d weep.” However, Edwards said he is developing a show about a magic act with speaking lines only for his wife and her old friend, Carol Burnett. It could be on Broadway in a year, he said.

TV & RADIO

Minyard, Tilden End KABC Run: With closing remarks that were neither maudlin nor bitter, Ken Minyard and Peter Tilden ended their KABC-AM (790) morning-drive run Thursday, bidding listeners farewell and thanking each other for support. Minyard suggested without elaboration that the station wanted to move in another direction. Neither Minyard, who has been doing the 5-9 a.m. morning show for 26 years, nor Tilden, Minyard’s partner for two years, discussed specific plans for the future. Meanwhile, KABC program director Drew Hayes said that nighttime host Marc “Mr. KABC” Germain will shift to the morning slot on an interim basis, beginning today, with Joe Crummey filling Germain’s 9-10 p.m. slot. As for a permanent replacement, Hayes said: “There are lots of names up for consideration.”

Viewers Vote: Yet another televised awards show is headed our way, with the new TV Guide Awards scheduled to air Feb. 1 on Fox. The awards--with categories including favorite drama, new series, soap opera and sportscaster--will be voted by the magazine’s readers, with ballots to be included in next week’s issue.

QUICK TAKES

Joan Cumming, marketing director for L.A. Opera, has been named executive director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the Music Center, effective Dec. 1. . . . Forty-five countries have submitted entries for the best foreign language film Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Thursday. . . . Garry Shandling will sign copies of his book “Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host” tonight at 7 at Brentano’s bookstore in Century City. . . . Former “Seinfeld” star Michael Richards will play Micawber and Sally Field will portray Aunt Betsey in a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield,” to air in 1999 on cable’s TNT. . . . Singer Melissa Etheridge and her partner Julie Cypher have a son, Beckett, born to Cypher in an L.A. hospital Wednesday. The couple also have a daughter, Baily Jean. . . . Tonight’s performance of Donald Byrd’s “Harlem Nutcracker” at the Wiltern Theatre has been canceled. Saturday and Sunday performances will take place as planned.