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

TELEVISION

Latino Groups to Confront Networks: A coalition of about a dozen major Latino organizations will announce a national strategy to address the lack of diversity in television and the movies during the National Council of La Raza’s annual convention in Houston on Tuesday. Direct-action measures under consideration include boycotts and picket lines targeting specific networks and studios. “We need to go back to the ‘60s and ‘70s. What we were doing then was working; what we’re doing now isn’t working,” said Jerry Velasco, president of Nosotros, which tracks the Latino presence in Hollywood. “We also need to integrate the boardrooms. We need to address that problem. Because if [entertainment executives] don’t understand the problem, how will they be educated?” Other groups expected to participate include the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, founded by actor Jimmy Smits, the National Latino Media Coalition and a producers group led by activist-producer Moctesuma Esparza.

Final Thought: Although he said he was flattered to be asked, talk show host Jerry Springer questioned whether it was “practical or possible” for him to run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio, where Democratic officials have asked him to consider a candidacy in 2000. Party officials said Springer’s name recognition--even though his show has featured sexual topics and brawling guests--would be a big plus in the race against incumbent Mike DeWine, a Republican. “‘I respect the seriousness of their inquiry and will respond in a timely, sincere and appropriate manner,” Springer said in a statement released by his publicist in Chicago. Springer was a City Council member and later mayor of Cincinnati before giving up politics for TV.

MUSIC

Fonovisa Guilty of Payola: The promotions chief at Fonovisa, the leading independent label in the Latin music business, pleaded guilty to payola charges on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Jesus Gilberto Moreno, the first senior executive in the record industry ever to be successfully prosecuted under the 40-year-old payola statute, has agreed to pay a $50,000 fine and could be sentenced to as much as one year in jail, according to a plea agreement filed in court on Monday. The government charged Moreno with a misdemeanor payola count for paying cash to Spanish radio station deejays to obtain airplay for Fonovisa songs, court records show. The Van Nuys-based record label, which is owned by Mexican media giant Grupo Televisa, also pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony tax count stemming from falsely reported promotional expenses. Fonovisa has agreed to pay back taxes and a $700,000 fine for the tax violation, but could be charged more, according to the agreement filed in court.

My Guitar Gently Reaps: The guitar that Beatle George Harrison played on a London rooftop during the band’s final performance 30 years ago is expected to fetch more than $320,000 at an auction Aug. 19, said Sarah Allen, a spokeswoman for the London auction house Bonhams. The custom-made rosewood Fender Telecaster was commissioned by classic rock guitar maker Leo Fender as a gift to Harrison in 1968. Harrison used it in recording the Beatles’ “Let It Be” album and film.

MOVIES

The Phantom Studio Executive?: The last time anyone checked, Lorenzo di Bonaventura was still head of production at Warner Bros., but when die-hard Michael Crawford fans recently deluged the studio executive with letters demanding that he cast the Broadway performer in any future film based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera,” they were in for a shock. Up to 200 letters went back unopened, many stamped: “Return to sender,” “Cannot locate,” “No longer at this address.” Only last week, studio Co-Chairmen Bob Daly and Terry Semel stunned Hollywood by announcing they would be resigning at year’s end, but Di Bonaventura, who runs the day-to-day production chores at Warners, is still very much in power. Leaders of the Michael Crawford Phantom Movie Campaign fired back a letter--copied to Gerald Levin and Ted Turner, chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of Time Warner Inc.--saying they were “insulted” by the studio’s non-response. “The people who took the time and effort to sit down and write letters telling you what they, as your future ‘Phantom’ moviegoers, want to see in this picture, do not deserve to have their words thrown back in their faces,” they wrote. “This is not a way to treat your customers.” The studio had no comment but did say that it reserves the right, should the film be made, “to decide all creative matters, including casting.”

QUICK TAKES

Actress Roz Kelly, who played Fonzie’s girlfriend on the sitcom “‘Happy Days,” has pleaded no contest in Los Angeles to charges she fired a gun at a neighbor’s home because she was angry about a car alarm. . . . A bronze bust of Alfred Hitchcock will be unveiled near the entrance to Universal Studios on Tuesday, the centennial of the late filmmaker’s birth. Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren and Pat Hitchcock O’Connell, the director’s daughter, will take part in the 10 a.m. ceremony. . . . Actress Josie Bissett, formerly of “Melrose Place,” gave birth to her first child, a boy, Wednesday afternoon. The father is Rob Estes, another former “Melrose Place” star. . . . A commemorative postage stamp honoring Oscar-winning film and stage great James Cagney was placed on sale Friday by the U.S. Postal Service. . . . The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir has given up bachelorhood at 51, marrying Natasha Muenter, 31, a former teacher, on July 15 at the couple’s Mill Valley home.