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

TELEVISION

Sweeps Finish: CBS has edged NBC for the November rating sweeps crown, based on preliminary Nielsen results through Wednesday, the final night of the four-week survey. CBS finished with a prime-time average of 13.7 million viewers, compared to NBC’s 13.5 million. NBC did forestall one indignity, holding off a late charge by Fox to win the sweeps among adults age 18 to 49, the demographic most sought by advertisers. Despite its second-place finish in that age bracket (where CBS ranked fourth), Fox was fourth overall, behind ABC. The top-rated programs Wednesday were Diane Sawyer’s “20/20” interview with independent counsel Kenneth Starr on ABC and CBS’ Celine Dion special.

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AIDS Around the World: Bill Roedy, president of MTV/VH1 International, has been named an ambassador for the United Nations’ AIDS program, UNAIDS. In announcing Roedy’s appointment, the U.N. cited MTV’s efforts to “reach hundreds of millions of teens and young adults worldwide with messages of HIV prevention.” Meanwhile, all of MTV’s global networks, which collectively reach a potential audience of 1 billion, will unite on Tuesday, World AIDS Day, to air “Staying Alive,” a half-hour documentary about young people affected by AIDS in six countries.

MOVIES

King of the Theme Park: Director James Cameron, who set a spending record on his Oscar-winning film “Titanic,” is spreading the green once again with “Terminator 2 3-D,” a new “virtual adventure” scheduled to open at Universal Studios Hollywood next spring. The attraction--for which Cameron shares directing credits with special effects master Stan Winston (“Jurassic Park”) and Oscar winner John Bruno (“The Abyss”)--combines live-action stunts with a 12-minute original film described as “frame-by-frame, the most expensive live-action motion picture ever produced.” The film is to be projected on three 23-foot-by-50-foot screens--billed as “the world’s largest 3-D installation.” The attraction is dubbed a “sequel” to Cameron’s 1991 hit movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” and features original “Terminator 2” cast member Edward Furlong in a battle to save humanity from destruction. Although no cost has been released for the project, a similar attraction that opened at Universal Studios Florida in 1996 was reported to have cost about $65 million.

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Israeli Film Fare: The 15th annual Israel Film Festival opens next Thursday with a benefit screening of “Circus Palestina” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills. The movie won five 1998 Israeli Academy Awards, including best picture, screenplay and actor. The festival, which runs through Dec. 17 at Laemmle’s Music Hall in Beverly Hills, will feature the U.S. premieres of more than 35 of Israel’s best features, documentaries, TV dramas and miniseries. The festival also will present its first lifetime achievement award to Lia van Leer, founder of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and the Israel Film Archive.

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What Court Dates May Come: A Virginia-based painter has filed a $1-million copyright infringement lawsuit against PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, claiming that the recently released Robin Williams movie “What Dreams May Come” used two of his landscape paintings without his permission. “I would like to get credit for my work; it’s just that simple,” said painter Louis Jones. The allegedly stolen images, which Jones said appeared on the covers of two books, are central to the film, in which Williams’ character dies and then goes to a heaven that turns out to be a scene from his wife’s paintings. A PolyGram spokesman could not be reached for comment, although Jones said that a lawyer for distributor Interscope Communications Inc., a co-defendant in the suit, has maintained that the paintings were created by another artist and were inspired by Glacier National Park in Montana.

QUICK TAKES

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, previously closed on Mondays, is now open seven days a week. The new museum hours are Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. . . . Singer Randy Travis, “Babe” star James Cromwell and the Radio City Rockettes will be at Universal Studios Hollywood today to help switch on the Globe Entrance Christmas tree at 5 p.m. . . . Lee Hendrix, associate curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum since 1989, has been appointed curator of drawings at the museum. She succeeds Nicholas Turner, who resigned in September after settling a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Getty, charging that he was mistreated by his female supervisors after he broke off an affair with an employee. . . . “Star Trek: Voyager” captain Kate Mulgrew, 43, is engaged to Tim Hagan, 52, a county commissioner in Ohio. Hagan told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the couple will wed in the spring.