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

TELEVISION

Ratings ‘Laws’: Two new dramas with the word “Law” in their titles got off to promising starts in the ratings Monday, the first official night of the new TV season. CBS’ 10 p.m. show “Family Law” did especially well with women, attracting an estimated 15.6 million viewers--CBS’ best results with a regular series that hour since “Brooklyn South” premiered two years ago. NBC’s spinoff “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” also held its own at 9 p.m. against football on ABC and CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond,” with about 14.1 million viewers. That marked a sharp improvement on NBC’s 8-9 p.m. results, where “Suddenly Susan” and “Veronica’s Closet” finished well behind CBS’ “King of Queens” and the new sitcom “Ladies Man” (13.6 million viewers).

*

Bye-Bye ‘Baywatch’?: “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff, 46, has told reporters in Honolulu that he may soon hang up his red swimming trunks. “This may be my last season,” he said. “I’m not going to say I’m not coming back . . . but, you know, 10 years is 10 years.” Hasselhoff--whose character appears in only 14 of 22 episodes this season--said he wants to pursue other interests, including acting in a Broadway show. Meanwhile, the show’s 200th episode airs Saturday at 6 p.m. on KCOP-TV.

POP/ROCK

Assassination Superstar: Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, the self-proclaimed “Antichrist Superstar,” re-creates the assassination of John F. Kennedy in his latest video, for the song “Coma White.” Manson himself portrays the president riding in a motorcade, with his real-life girlfriend, actress Rose McGowan, seated next to him dressed as Jackie Kennedy. Manson appears to be struck by a bullet in his neck, then McGowan weeps as she cradles his head. In a statement, Manson says the video--which began airing on MTV Monday--uses the Kennedy assassination “as a metaphor for America’s obsession and worship of violence” and is intended as “a tribute to men like Jesus Christ and JFK who have died at the hands of mankind’s unquenchable thirst for violence.” The singer noted that he filmed the video prior to both the Columbine High School shootings and JFK Jr.’s plane crash death, but added: “It was telling to see the media shamelessly gorge itself on these events, which ultimately made my observations in the video even truer than I had originally imagined.” So far, representatives for the Kennedy family have not publicly discussed the video, and a spokesman for Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) has declined to comment. Meanwhile, an MTV executive said that the outlet had not yet received any complaints, and that the video has become one of the network’s most requested clips.

THE ARTS

A White House Date: Singer Aretha Franklin, TV producer Norman Lear, ballerina Maria Tallchief and the famed Juilliard performing arts school are among the 1999 National Medal of Arts recipients announced late Monday by President Clinton. The president and first lady will present the Robert Graham-designed medals--honoring those who “in the president’s judgment are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States”--during White House ceremonies on Sept. 29. This year’s recipients, recommended by the National Endowment for the Arts, also include architect Michael Graves, sculptor George Segal, singers Lydia Mendoza and Odetta, and actress-producer Rosetta LeNoire, arts patron Irene Diamond and arts administrator Harvey Lichtenstein.

*

Philharmonic Musicians Get Raise: The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 105 musicians have ratified a new contract that will continue through Sept. 18, 2005. The agreement, the longest ever for the orchestra, calls for an average 4% yearly increase in the musicians’ base wages, topping out at $2,025 per week in the 2004-2005 season. The package is similar to those at the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra. “The new contract reflects our orchestra’s position as one of the best in the country, indeed in the entire world,” said L.A. Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen. “This six-year agreement allows us to make extensive artistic plans, including tours, recordings and--most importantly--the opening seasons of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.”

*

Weisman Gift Settled: A long-festering legal argument over a planned gift of $1.2-million worth of contemporary art from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation to the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota has ended. Under terms of the settlement, at least 30 of the 35 works will be returned to the Los Angeles-based foundation; the Minneapolis museum will retain “The Pedicord Apartments,” a large sculpture by Edward and Nancy Kienholz, and up to four other works. Weisman, who died in 1994, donated $3.3 million for the construction of the museum, which was designed by architect Frank O. Gehry and opened in 1993. Weisman loaned the 35 artworks to the museum and drew up an agreement to donate them, but legal title was not transferred after his death because terms continued to be in question. The university objected to the foundation’s control of the collection’s display and in 1998 sued to end the contract.

QUICK TAKES

Ray Suarez, host of NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” is leaving the call-in program to become senior correspondent for PBS’ “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.” Suarez’s last day on “Talk of the Nation” is Thursday, and he joins “NewsHour” on Oct. 4. . . . Rap mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs gives a keynote address at the “Digital Hollywood” conference today at 9 a.m. at the Beverly Hilton. . . . Illusionists Siegfried & Roy get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame during 11:30 a.m. ceremonies Thursday at 7060 Hollywood Blvd. . . . Meryl Streep will receive the 1999 Independent Feature Project’s Gotham Award for Lifetime Achievement today in New York. The award will be presented by Miramax Films’ Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who received the same prize in 1997.