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

TELEVISION

‘Lucy’ in the Mail: One of TV’s most popular sitcoms got its own postage stamp this week with the U.S. Postal Service’s release of this depiction of “I Love Lucy” stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The series, which ran on CBS from 1951-57 but lives on in syndication worldwide, is one of several 1950s icons to be honored in a series of commemorative stamps issued under the Postal Service’s “Celebrate the Century” program.

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Anti-Gun Efforts: Rosie O’Donnell, a fervent critic of the National Rifle Assn. who drew headlines last week for debating talk-show guest Tom Selleck on gun control issues, has donated $50,000 for parents of victims of the Littleton, Colo., school shooting. . . . Shock rocker Marilyn Manson--whose music was reported to be a possible influence on the Columbine High School gunmen--gives his first interview since the tragedy on MTV today, airing at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Also on MTV today, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC and Blues Traveler’s John Popper are among those taking part in an hourlong panel discussion on gun-control issues, airing at 8 p.m. . . . “Walker, Texas Ranger” star Chuck Norris is taping a series of Florida TV ads issuing a stern warning that criminals who use guns will go to jail longer under a new state law.

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Wake-Up Call: In what’s being billed as a “response to viewer demand for an earlier local newscast,” KCBS-TV will expand its early morning weekday news broadcast on Monday, beginning a half-hour earlier at 5 a.m. The move gives the station the only local 5 a.m. newscast in the L.A. market.

ART

From MOCA to Art Center?: Richard Koshalek, who ends his 16-year tenure as director of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art on July 1, is expected to be the next president of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Although Koshalek and a college spokesperson both said that no contract has been signed, Koshalek acknowledged that the agreement is in final negotiations. Koshalek, who joined MOCA’s staff in 1980, the year after the museum was founded, has been its director since 1982 and is credited with building one of the nation’s foremost showcases for contemporary art. He will be succeeded by Jeremy Strick, curator of 20th century painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago.

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NEA Seeks Increase: National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Bill Ivey asked senators Thursday for an additional $50 million to spread his agency’s work to underserved areas of the country. The NEA’s current budget is $98 million, but President Clinton has requested $150 million for the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Of that, $50 million would go for a three-year “Challenge America” program, with first-year goals to “target funding to communities that lack a significant arts presence.” Some Congress members have complained that NEA grants concentrate too heavily on big cities such as Los Angeles and New York.

STAGE

A Noise Within Luckman: A Noise Within will move from its 144-seat Glendale space to the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State Los Angeles, where it will become the resident company, beginning in September. At first, the classical repertory group plans to use only 252 seats--the first 10 rows--of the 1,150-seat Luckman, with the balcony and back rows to be curtained off. Eventually, however, the company hopes to expand to use the entire 642-seat orchestra section. A previous plan to expand within the company’s Glendale facility has been stymied by the group’s inability to obtain a long-term lease there.

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Another Resident Move: International City Theatre in Long Beach will become an exclusively midsized theater next season, leaving its original 99-seat home at Long Beach City College and presenting an expanded season of five productions at the Center Theater in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, where it was named the official resident company this week. The company has presented programming at Center Theater since 1997, using a 190-seat configuration, but hopes to enlarge the seating capacity to 349 next season.

QUICK TAKES

Guest appearances by pop singer Ricky Martin and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura brought NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” its second-highest ratings of the season Wednesday and scored the show’s best Wednesday night numbers ever, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings. . . . Ellen Barkin filed for divorce Wednesday from Gabriel Byrne, almost six years after the two film actors separated. . . . Susan Macall Allen, head of special collections at UCLA’s Young Research Library, has been appointed to the new position of chief librarian at the Getty Research Institute’s 800,000-volume library, effective June 28.