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

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

The Why Files: The mystery deepened Wednesday as to why Art Bell, the syndicated overnight radio host who discusses conspiracy theories and the paranormal, suddenly quit his “Coast to Coast” program Tuesday. While he alluded to “a threatening, terrible event [that] occurred to my family,” a sheriff’s spokesman in Bell’s hometown of Pahrump, Nev., said there was “no criminal activity being investigated” and added that Bell’s problem is of “a personal nature; he had an event in his life that he feels he needs to go off the air and handle.” Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke, a self-described close friend of Bell’s, said, “He’s not, nor is his family, in immediate danger. They have not been threatened.” Responding to media speculation, a spokeswoman for Bell’s syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks, said Wednesday: “To the best of my knowledge, this is not a hoax.”

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A Princely Price: A Prince Charles lithograph of Windsor Castle fetched $42,500 at a Dublin auction Wednesday, with the proceeds going to an Irish hospital. Due to incorrect information supplied by the Associated Press, Tuesday’s Morning Report had indicated the lithograph was worth only about $4,000; in fact, Charles’ lithographs--several of which have sold at auction previously--are all valued at $25,000 and up, an HRH The Prince of Wales Lithographs representative said Wednesday.

QUICK TAKES

Rapper-actress Queen Latifah will get her own weekday talk show next fall, with 11 Fox-owned stations, including KTTV, having acquired the one-hour show. . . . CBS has canceled “The Brian Benben Show” after four telecasts. Reruns of “Everybody Loves Raymond” will air Mondays at 9:30 p.m. until Nov. 2, when the spot will be filled with a new Ted Danson sitcom, “Becker.” . . . Rapper Jay-Z’s “Vol. II . . . Hard Knock Life” remains the nation’s best-selling album, moving 207,000 copies in its second week, according to SoundScan. Rapper Bizzy Bone’s “Heaven’z Movie” was the highest-ranking newcomer, at No. 3. . . . Tuesday night’s official opening of Terrence McNally’s controversial play “Corpus Christi,” featuring a gay Christ-like character, was met with competing demonstrations, with about 2,000 people singing religious hymns to protest the play, while 400 1st Amendment advocates held a counter-demonstration nearby. Both sides were kept across the street from the Manhattan Theatre Club, where playgoers passed through metal detectors. . . . ABC News has pulled the plug on a proposed “20/20” story about theme park security that was based upon a book critical of the network’s parent company, Walt Disney. An ABC spokeswoman said the decision was made independently by ABC News Chairman David Westin, who felt the story “did not work.”