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

TV & MOVIES

Kids Champ: Cable’s Nickelodeon has won the 1998-99 TV season’s Saturday morning ratings, topping all broadcast and cable competitors, according to Nielsen ratings figures released Thursday. Nickelodeon’s Saturday kids’ fare averaged 1.5 million viewers, with ABC and Fox each drawing about 1.1 million, followed by the WB network with 926,000. It’s Nickelodeon’s second year as the Saturday morning champ.

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Cinematheque to Honor Jodie Foster: The American Cinematheque will pay tribute to Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster when she is feted at the group’s annual Moving Picture Ball on Oct. 9 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The event, to be hosted by David Hyde Pierce, will air Oct. 17 on cable’s TNT. The annual honor goes to “an extraordinary artist in the entertainment industry who is fully engaged in his or her work and is committed to making a significant contribution to the art of film and video.” Previous recipients include Eddie Murphy, Bette Midler, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

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O.J. in Hollywood: For anyone wondering if Thursday night’s premiere of Fox’s caustic new comedy, “Action,” was imitating reality with a scene featuring an agent pitching O.J. Simpson for a movie role, it wasn’t. Beyond that, however, representatives of the show are somewhat coy, saying only that some conversations and characters are composites based on actual Hollywood stories. What is certain is that, according to the Screen Actors Guild, Simpson does not provide it with any contact information regarding an agent at this point.

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Halted by Hurricane Floyd: A sampling of entertainment productions affected by Hurricane Floyd: DreamWorks SKG’s “The Legend of Bagger Vance”--directed by Robert Redford and starring Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron--had to shut down and evacuate its Savannah, Ga., set. Also halting production this week was the WB network’s teen series “Dawson’s Creek,” filmed in Wilmington, N.C., and a Morgan Creek movie called “The In Crowd,” being made in Charleston, S.C.

QUICK TAKES

Just a month before its Oct. 15 premiere, the producers of Fox’s new drama “The Badland” have changed the series’ name to “Ryan Caulfield: Year One,” after bowing to pressure from Philadelphians who feared the series would cast the city’s Badlands area in a negative light. “It is an election year,” said a spokeswoman for the show, which is about a rookie cop. . . . Among new network projects in the works in the wake of criticism over the lack of diversity among the latest crop of TV series, filmmaker Gregory Nava (“Mi Familia,” “Selena”) is developing a CBS drama revolving around a multigenerational Mexican family in Los Angeles, and ABC is developing an hourlong drama based on the urban detective character played by Denzel Washington in the big screen’s “Devil in a Blue Dress.” Casting has not been announced for either project. . . . Sunset Boulevard’s House of Blues has opened its members-only upstairs club, the Foundation Room, to the public on Sunday and Monday nights for lounge-style musical performances. Sunday programs will offer a range of musical styles, while Monday shows will focus exclusively on Latin and Brazilian jazz. Admission prices will vary. . . . The Latin Recording Academy (LARAS) has named songwriter and former record label executive Mauricio Abaroa as senior vice president/executive director and marketing executive Erik D. Sorensen as managing director. LARAS, formed in 1997, will stage the first Latin Grammy Awards show in fall 2000. . . . Actress Kelly Preston (“For Love of the Game”) told Jay Leno on Wednesday night’s “Tonight Show” that she and husband John Travolta are expecting their second child. The couple have a 7-year-old son, Jett. . . . Actress Reese Witherspoon, 23, gave birth to a 7-pound daughter on Sept. 9, one day before the baby’s father, her actor-husband Ryan Phillippe, turned 25. The couple, who co-starred in “Cruel Intentions,” have not disclosed the baby’s name. . . . Mel Brooks is a guest on public radio’s “The Savvy Traveler” this weekend, discussing both his own travel experiences and those of his comedic character the 2000 Year Old Man. The program airs at 5 p.m. Saturday on KUSC-FM (91.5) and at 4 p.m. Sunday on KPCC-FM (89.3). . . . The correct time for KCET’s television premiere of Wim Wenders’ documentary “Buena Vista Social Club” is 9 p.m. on Nov. 3.