Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

TELEVISION

Watch Your Back, Boys: MTV is taking its “Real World”-style reality programming to ABC, which has given the go-ahead for an untitled MTV Productions series following the true-life formation of a culturally diverse boys’ band. The nascent band--to be based in Orlando, Fla.--will be guided by music executive Lou Pearlman, who is credited with discovering the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. The series will follow the five-member band’s development from a cross-country talent search through the recording of two singles and the first public performance. Producers hope to create “the next big music phenomenon.”

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Oprah for President? Following talk of a possible presidential run by actor Warren Beatty, Reform Party members from Minnesota--the same folks who helped get Jesse Ventura elected governor of the state--are pushing for another celebrity presidential candidate: talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. “It is Jesse Ventura times 100,” said Paul Larsen, chairman of the Reform Party’s draft committee. “She’s got a thousand times as much money, one hundred times the name recognition. She has a sterling reputation for honesty.” Although party leaders have created a Web site to draft the queen of talk, a show spokeswoman said Winfrey has no interest in the job. But Larsen said he is not giving up and will ask Ventura to help persuade her to run. That prompted Ventura spokesman Doug Friedline to call the situation “kind of weird. . . . It’s almost like we have celebrity-itis in the Reform Party.” . . . On the Beatty front, meanwhile, cable’s TV Land has unearthed a 1959-60 episode of “The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis” in which Beatty’s character, Milton Armitage, makes a run for president--opposing Dobie Gillis in a bid to lead the junior class. The episode airs Sunday at 6 and 9 p.m.

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All-Spanish: KWHY-TV, which began full-time Spanish-language broadcasting on Monday, has moved its daytime “Business News 22” English-language programming to KJLA-TV, which broadcasts on channel 57 and is carried on several local cable systems. The business programming is also on the Web, at https://www.businessnews2000.com. In an advertisement addressed to viewers Tuesday, KWHY President Buzz Harris said that the station made the change because of demand for “more daytime Spanish-language programming.”

THE ARTS

Radio City Reopens: Billy Crystal, Mary J. Blige, Sting, Ann-Margret, Lou Bega, Tony Bennett, 98 Degrees, Ann Miller, Raquel Welch and the Rockettes were among the performers Monday night at the grand reopening of New York’s Radio City Music Hall. The concert, marking the end of a seven-month, $70-million restoration project aimed at returning the Manhattan landmark to its 1930s Art Deco splendor, will air as an NBC special in December.

QUICK TAKES

A contract squabble between Grammy-winning singer Beck and his label, Geffen Records, has been settled. Beck threatened to bolt from the label in January when contract negotiations stalled, and Geffen responded with a breach-of-contract lawsuit in April. Now that the suit has been dropped, the singer is “very satisfied” with his new Geffen deal, attorney Jill Berliner said Tuesday. . . . Norm Macdonald--the former “Saturday Night Live” regular who was fired from the show a couple of years ago by then-NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer--is expected to return to guest-host “SNL” on Oct. 23. . . . Playwright Alfred Uhry (“Driving Miss Daisy,” “Last Night at Ballyhoo”) and director Kevin Sullivan (“How Stella Got Her Groove Back”) are teaming up to develop a pilot for CBS that would feature a multiethnic cast. The pilot would take a wry look at the fictional young staff of a black Atlanta mayor. . . . KRLA-AM (1110) will hold a community forum--”LAPD: Protect and Serve, or Law and Disorder?”--today at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills. Hosted by radio’s Michael Jackson, the 9 a.m.-noon program is open to the public and will air live on KRLA. L.A. Police Chief Bernard Parks and District Attorney Gil Garcetti are among the scheduled guests.