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

TELEVISION

Rugrats Learn Spanish: Kids cable channel Nickelodeon announced Tuesday that it will partner with Spanish-language television network Telemundo to broadcast some of Nickelodeon’s top kids’ programming in Spanish on Telemundo. The daily two-hour block, Nickelodeon’s first Spanish-language venture, premieres Nov. 9 and will include “Rugrats,” “Hey Arnold!,” “Rocko’s Modern Life,” “Blue’s Clues” and “AAAHH!!! Real Monsters.” “Historically, Latino children have been underserved by Spanish-language television in the U.S.,” said Telemundo entertainment president Nely Galan. “This partnership will be the first step towards addressing this void.”

THEATER

Not Bowled Over by Leigh: Jennifer Jason Leigh, taking over the role of Sally Bowles from the Tony-winning Natasha Richardson in New York’s “Cabaret,” disappointed the critics of Newsday, the New York Times and the Associated Press. “We get Sally the self-destructive strumpet loud and clear,” wrote Ben Brantley of the New York Times. “But Sally the siren is nowhere to be seen. Her presence is much missed.” Clive Barnes of the New York Post was more satisfied, citing Leigh’s “fiercely in-depth portrait/scrawl.”

RADIO

Bell Coming Back?: One week after his sudden resignation, the enigmatic Art Bell strongly hinted Monday night that he would return to broadcasting. But in a brief update on his syndicated “Coast to Coast” show, he did not enlighten listeners about when he would be back or what “threatening” event took him off the air. Bell, who was heard on KABC-AM (790) from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., said that what happened “absolutely requires my full attention now. And to not give it right now would surely be negligent and neglectful of those I love.” He said that his distributor, Premiere Radio Networks, has been doing its best to “help resolve the situation. Frankly, on the night I resigned, I thought it could not be resolved. Now I hope it can, allowing me to return to what I love doing so much. But I need more time. . . .” Premiere is using guest hosts on the show for the time being.

THE ARTS

The Opera House Ain’t Over: On the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Opera House today, famed Danish architect Joern Utzon, 80, will be asked to help redesign the interior of the emblematic building more than a quarter of a century after he quit the project in disgust. The New South Wales state government said Monday that Utzon would be asked to advise on possible changes to the building’s interior and conceded that the finished product had robbed Sydney of the Dane’s complete vision. Utzon has not visited the opera house since leaving the city in 1966, vowing never to return. Utzon’s daughter Lyn said Utzon would be pleased to be consulted about the changes but is too old to return to Sydney from his home on the Spanish island of Majorca.

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TV Tunes In to Arts: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, along with ARTS Inc. and Americans for the Arts, will co-host the forum “Exploring Intersections: Entertainment and the Arts” at the academy in North Hollywood on Oct. 28. Open to the public, the forum will address current collaborations and future partnerships between entertainment and the arts. Guest panelists will include Los Angeles County Museum of Art President Andrea Rich, Los Angeles Philharmonic managing director Willem Wijnbergen and Screen Actors Guild President Richard Masur.

PEOPLE

Age Game: Reacting to recent press accounts about Riley Weston, a 32-year-old woman who pretended to be 19 to land a writing job on the WB network series “Felicity,” a writer placed a tongue-in-cheek ad in the trade paper Daily Variety on Tuesday with a picture of an elderly man. “I’m a 19-year-old writer who needs a job,” the text said. “I don’t have any major writing credits, but I’m strong. I’m quirky. I’m weird. And in many ways, I am Felicity too.” John Derevlany, whose credits include working on the Fox series “TV Nation,” took out the ad, he said, because “it’s so arbitrary the reasons that people get hired in this town that have nothing to do with [talent].” Derevlany, who said he is 34, said he had received more than 50 calls in response by midday Tuesday.

QUICK TAKES

Jay Leno, Betty White, Gregory Hines, Martin Landau and Forest Whitaker will present Distinguished Artist Awards to Kirk Douglas, Jerry Herman, Ann Reinking, Lalo Schifrin and Garth Brooks at the Music Center’s 17th annual event on Nov. 4. . . . Miramax Films’ “Life Is Beautiful” (La Vita E Bella), Roberto Benigni’s comedy set in a concentration camp that kicks off the annual AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival on Thursday at Mann’s Chinese Theatre, has received the endorsement of the Jewish Federation’s Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. . . . Vancouver-based Mainframe Entertainment Inc. has acquired the rights to Gene Rodenberry’s TV series concept “Starship,” with initial plans to produce the property as a 3-D computer-generated animation television series.