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

ENTERTAINMENT

Record PBS Pledges: March fund-raising drives at member stations nationwide brought PBS a record $55.5 million in pledges, an 8% increase from last year’s record haul of $51.3 million. Corporate sponsorship is also on the rise, with the PBS Sponsorship Group--a nearly 2-year-old corporate marketing consortium formed by PBS’ largest members, including Los Angeles’ KCET-TV--garnering $18.3 million for the first quarter of 1999, a 30% increase over the same period last year. As previously reported, KCET itself took in $1.8 million in March pledges, up from last year’s $1.7 million.

*

Imagen Winners: NBC’s Christina Applegate comedy, “Jesse,” was named best comedy series and CBS’ “Touched by an Angel” won the drama series prize Thursday at the 14th annual Imagen Awards honoring positive portrayals of Latinos. Other winners at the Beverly Hilton Hotel ceremonies included the independent feature “True Friends” (best movie), NBC’s “Sunset Beach” (daytime drama), KCET’s “Life and Times” (informational program) and HBO’s “John Leguizamo: Freak” (comedy special). Special recipients were “Touched by an Angel” producer Martha Williamson (Vision Award), composer-conductor Lalo Schifrin and animation producer Phil Roman (Lifetime Achievement Awards), and actor Antonio Banderas (Lasting Image Award, recognizing his work in “The Mask of Zorro” as the year’s “most visible and outstanding role by a Hispanic actor”).

*

Pop Chart: A Rolling Stone apparently gathers money for young Britney Spears. The 17-year-old pop singer, recently featured in a seductive pose on the cover of the national music magazine, enjoyed her strongest week yet of sales for her debut album, “ . . . Baby One More Time,” which is again the nation’s No. 1 album with 273,000 copies sold last week, according to SoundScan. Meanwhile, hip-hop trio TLC’s “Fanmail” ranked second, while Detroit rapper Eminem fell to No. 3. The highest debuts were Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli’s “Sogno” at No. 4 and, at No. 7, a concert compilation from the hard-edged Family Values rock music tour.

QUICK TAKES

To help shed light on the war in Kosovo, cable’s Discovery Channel will televise its 1995 Peabody Award-winning documentary, “Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation,” on Friday from 8 to 11 p.m., without commercials. . . . Sara Lee Kessler, a New Jersey anchorwoman who was demoted, then fired after she went on a medical disability leave, has won $7.3 million in a discrimination suit against her former station, Secaucus’ WWOR-TV. . . . Country singer George Jones, hospitalized for two weeks after a March 6 car crash, was readmitted to a Nashville hospital Tuesday with what was said to be an irregular heartbeat possibly caused by dehydration.