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

TELEVISION

Lewinsky ‘Teary,’ Not ‘Sobbing’: ABC News confirmed earlier reports that it will air its interview with Monica Lewinsky on March 3, the last night of the February sweeps. It will run for two hours, from 9 to 11 p.m., instead of the originally planned 90 minutes, and will air one time only, under contractual terms agreed to by ABC. ABC News President David Westin called the interview “compelling” but said the network will nonetheless hold off on airing it for more than a week in order to “get it right.” In a press conference Monday, Barbara Walters, who conducted the more-than-three-hour interview in an ABC studio on Saturday, called Lewinsky “impressive” and “extremely articulate . . . not a Valley girl.” The interview, she said, covered the relationship between Lewinsky and President Clinton “from Day One, the day of the thong. . . . You see the president in a way I’m not sure you’ve been able to see him before.” Lewinsky does get “teary,” Walters said, but “this is not a sobbing interview.”

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Filling the Void: A spokeswoman for the syndicated “Siskel & Ebert” said Monday that it was “completely too early” to know the direction the show will take in the wake of the death Saturday of film critic Gene Siskel. However, the show, which airs Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on KABC-TV, will run an Ebert-hosted tribute to Siskel on this weekend’s edition. The following weekend, Washington Post television critic Tom Shales, who served as a guest host on last weekend’s show, will return, but plans beyond that are in limbo. Meanwhile, the show’s annual Oscar special had already been canceled earlier this month, when Siskel first announced he was taking a medical leave to recuperate from brain surgery.

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Honoring Zaslow: Soap Opera Digest will present its Editor’s Award to the late Michael Zaslow during the magazine’s 15th annual awards show, airing Friday on NBC. Zaslow, who starred on CBS’ “Guiding Light” for 25 years and was most recently on ABC’s “One Life to Live,” died Dec. 6 of Lou Gehrig’s disease. His wife, Susan Hufford, will accept the honor.

MOVIES

Berlin Picks ‘Thin Red Line’: Terrence Malik’s best picture Oscar nominee “The Thin Red Line” won the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear, on Sunday. Silver Bear prizewinners included fellow Oscar nominee “Shakespeare in Love,” for which Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard won a trophy for screenwriting; “The Hi-Lo Country,” for which Stephen Frears took home the directing award; and “eXistenZ,” for which director David Cronenberg won an outstanding artistic achievement citation. . . . Meanwhile, cinematographer John Toll won the American Society of Cinematographers’ top honor Sunday for “The Thin Red Line.”

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‘Grinch’ Hopes to Steal Thanksgiving: Universal Pictures has set a Thanksgiving 2000 release date for its live-action version of “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” with Jim Carrey as the lead character. Brian Grazer will produce, and Ron Howard will direct. Meanwhile, Universal said it hopes to make the Grinch character into a “perennial franchise.”

MUSIC

Wonder, Xenakis Get Polar Prizes: American pop star Stevie Wonder and contemporary European composer Iannis Xenakis have been named to receive this year’s Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The prestigious prize, given annually to one popular and one classical musician, includes a cash prize of $125,000 for each recipient. Xenakis’ compositions use such unconventional sounds as amplified burning charcoal and jangling jewelry.

STAGE

Drama Critics Prizes: Shem Bitterman’s “The Job” has won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Ted Schmitt Award as the outstanding script to premiere in Los Angeles or Orange counties in 1998. The production is playing at Hollywood’s Hudson Theatre through March 28. Other special Drama Critics Circle Awards--to be given for cumulative achievement during March 15 ceremonies at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel--are the Margaret Harford Award to the Road Theatre Company of North Hollywood, the Natalie Schafer Award for a comedy actress to Gail Shapiro, the Angstrom lighting award to Kathi O’Donohue and the Bob Z set design award to Mark Henderson and Tim Farmer.

QUICK TAKES

Jerry Springer will be roasted by the Friar’s Club of California on April 27 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Bill Maher will serve as roast-master; comedians Andrew Dice Clay and Dom Irrera are among the scheduled roasters. . . . Conductor Franz Welser-Most, who was to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Thursday through Sunday, has canceled due to illness; he will be replaced at all four performances by Leonid Grin, who is music director of the San Jose Symphony Orchestra. Guest soloist Hilary Hahn will still perform as scheduled. . . . Due to poor health, Johnny Cash will not be attending Grammy Week celebrations at which he’ll receive a Lifetime Achievement Award; his wife, June Carter Cash, will accept the honor during a reception Tuesday at the California Science Center. . . . In other Grammy news, Celine Dion, Seal, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Shania Twain, Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli have been added to the list of performers for Wednesday’s televised awards on CBS. . . . Grammy-winning rapper Coolio pleaded innocent Monday to felony charges of having a gun and marijuana in his car when he was pulled over in Lawndale in September for allegedly driving on the wrong side of the road. A Torrance Superior Court hearing is set for March 3.