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

TELEVISION

Saturday Night Dreamin’: “Saturday Night Live,” which featured guest appearances by Monica Lewinsky and pop star Ricky Martin, delivered the NBC program’s highest rating this season. The late-night show drew an estimated 10 million viewers, based on viewing in big cities measured by Nielsen Media Research. The famed former White House intern did two sketches, including a pre-credits opening with series regular Darrell Hammond as President Clinton. It was a dream sequence, set in Malibu several years hence, with Clinton as a Hollywood talent agent and Lewinsky as the second Mrs. Clinton. When the Clinton character says he’s leaving for lunch--the audience already knows two blond hookers are involved--she points out that 6 p.m. is a little late for lunch. “Come on, don’t you trust me?” he asks. To which she replies, “In your dreams, you big creep.”

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V-chip 101: The nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation and the Center for Media Education are launching a campaign to educate people about the V-chip and screening TV content they might deem inappropriate for kids. Although the TV ratings system has been in effect since 1997, fewer than four in 10 parents said they had enough information about the system, based on a survey by the two groups. Nearly two-thirds of parents polled expressed concern about their children’s exposure to too much sex on TV, exceeding the 60% who cited excessive violence.

PEOPLE

Graduation Notes: Comedian Steve Allen got serious with graduates at the State University of New York health science center in Syracuse over the weekend. He told them not to confuse celebrities with true heroes. “You have the misfortune to be alive at a time and place where the entire American people would seem to have gone goofola about celebrities,” he said. “I draw a very sharp distinction between heroes--people who are worth reading about, people of great productive achievement, on one hand--and, God help us, celebrities on another.” The veteran comedian, author and songwriter, receiving an honorary doctorate of humane letters, encouraged graduates to read history and philosophy to learn about the “true heroes of our planet.” . . . And to graduates of Claflin College in Orangeburg, S.C., Bill Cosby made a plea for beleaguered parents everywhere: “In the name of God, move on. Because a house can’t take three grown people.” And rock singer David Bowie wished graduates of the Berklee College of Music in Boston “the same lusty life force” that music brought him.

POP/ROCK

New Beatles Song: An unreleased three-minute single by the Beatles will be available later this year, along with refurbished versions of the “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack and movie, according to a spokesman for Paul McCartney and Apple Records. The British press has reported that the song, circa 1968, features lead vocals by John Lennon and was culled from the recording sessions that produced the so-called “White Album.”

THEATER

Departures and Arrivals: Lars Hansen will leave his job as executive director of the Pasadena Playhouse to become president and CEO of Theatre LA, the primary organization of L.A. theaters and theater producers and the sponsor of the annual Ovation Awards. Hansen has been at the playhouse since 1988, through a period of financial reorganization. Before the hiring of current artistic director Sheldon Epps, Hansen often served as the unofficial artistic director in addition to his business duties. . . . In a tie with Bernadette Peters (“Annie Get Your Gun”), Carolee Carmello won a New York Drama Desk Award Sunday for best actress in a musical (for “Parade”). Carmello opens Wednesday in the Reprise! presentation of “Bells Are Ringing” at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse.

ART

Christie’s Viewing: About 40 Latin American artworks out of several hundred that will eventually go to auction will be on public display at Christie’s in Beverly Hills today through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Among them are Diego Rivera’s “Portrait of Paulette Goddard,” whose estimated value is $500,000 to $700,000. Known by the nickname “Sugar,” notes Christie’s, Goddard joined the ranks of women painted by the famed Mexican artist--and seduced by him as well. Other works on display, which will be auctioned at Christie’s in New York June 2 and 3, include “La frua bomba” by Wilfredo Lam (Cuba), $400,000 to $600,000, and “Chelsea Hotel” by Antonio Berni (Argentina), also $400,000 to $600,000.

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Springtime in Germany: Sturdy blond maidens toiling in the fields and muscular mythological figures are heavily featured in Adolf Hitler’s art collection, which went on public display for the first time Sunday. The Nazi leader’s favorite works of art are being shown in Weimar, Germany, as part of an exhibition called “The Rise and Fall of the Modern.” Works of explicit propaganda, such as paintings of senior Nazis or war scenes, are not on display, as most of these remain locked in a military depot in Washington. Organizers say the show is evidence of “the monstrous banality of National Socialist art production.”

QUICK TAKES

WB’s “Felicity” star Keri Russell and fellow cast members will perform a free mini-concert at UCLA’s Kerckhoff Hall today from 1 to 3 p.m., celebrating the release of the “Felicity” soundtrack from Hollywood Records. . . . KCET-TV will honor civic leader Eli Broad with the public station’s first KCET Visionary Award Sept. 13. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and his wife, Nancy Daly Riordan, will co-chair the event with Barry Munitz, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust and Anne Munitz. “NewsHour” anchor Jim Lehrer hosts.