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

TELEVISION

Legal Triumph: NBC’s “Law & Order” kicked off its 10th season in stellar fashion Wednesday, garnering 18.6 million viewers--3 million more than last year’s opener and the show’s biggest season premiere since its initial episode back in 1990. ABC didn’t fare as well with the new comedy “Oh Grow Up,” which drew 10.7 million viewers--a 17% drop from its lead-in, “The Drew Carey Show.” CBS won the night overall with the Country Music Assn. Awards. For “West Wing” ratings, see story, F1.

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More of ‘Millionaire’: ABC said it will bring back its hit summer game show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” for 15 consecutive days beginning Nov. 7. Regis Philbin will also return as the host. The program will air for an hour on Sundays, Mondays and Saturdays, and for a half-hour Tuesdays through Fridays.

POP/ROCK

Music of the Century: President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, along with the National Endowment for the Arts, will join with VH1’s music-in-the-schools program for “The Concert of the Century for VH1 Save the Music,” set for Oct. 23 in Washington. The concert--to be shown on VH1--will feature performances by B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Garth Brooks, Aretha Franklin, John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, Bono, Gloria Estefan, Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz and N’ Sync. VH1 said it was the first lady’s idea to “ring out the century by bringing together the biggest artists to play some of the greatest songs of the last 100 years.”

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Meeting With the Pope: Music industry heavyweights Bono, Quincy Jones and Bob Geldof met with Pope John Paul II in his residence outside Rome on Thursday to support his call for canceling the debts of the world’s poorest countries in the new millennium. The trio are part of an international group known as Jubilee 2000, which is seeking the cancellation of debts as a fitting gesture to mark the millennium. In June, Bono and Geldof were among several musicians from Jubilee 2000 who met in Germany with world leaders including President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

STAGE

Star Turns: Jason Alexander will host Theatre LA’s annual Ovations Awards ceremony, Nov. 8 at La Mirada Theatre. Nominations will be announced Monday. . . . David Bowie will co-produce the L.A. premiere of the rock musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” opening Oct. 31 at Hollywood’s Henry Fonda Theatre. . . . “Will & Grace” co-star Megan Mullally’s musical, “Sweetheart,” opens at West Hollywood’s Coast Playhouse on Oct. 16. . . . And on Broadway: Susan Lucci of “All My Children” will make her Broadway debut, replacing Bernadette Peters in the hit musical “Annie Get Your Gun,” for three weeks beginning Dec. 27.

ART

Long Beach Windfall: The University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach has received the most significant donation in its 25-year history: a $3.2-million collection of 85 works by 42 contemporary artists from the Gordon Hampton Foundation. Particularly strong in works by second-generation Abstract Expressionists and members of the New York School of painting, the collection includes pieces by Lee Krasner, Michael Goldberg, Al Held, Adolph Gottlieb and Milton Resnick. Hampton, who died in 1996, was an L.A.-based attorney, philanthropist and art collector who played a leading role in the formation and development of the Fellows of Contemporary Art, a local group that sponsors major exhibitions. Highlights of the Hampton gift will go on view in “Historically Speaking,” a survey of the museum’s evolution, Nov. 9-Dec. 10.

QUICK TAKES

“The Price Is Right” host Bob Barker, 75, is expected to be released today from a Washington hospital where he underwent surgery Monday to clear a blocked artery. Production on Barker’s show is expected to resume in about three weeks. . . . Local teenagers can audition on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (at 3321 S. La Cienega Blvd.) to be hosts on “Teen Talk,” a new radio program beginning this fall on KABC-AM (790). . . . The correct dates for the “Digital Hollywood” conference are Monday through Thursday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Rap mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs will give a keynote speech on Wednesday at 9 a.m.