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

TV & MOVIES

Statewide Diversity Study: Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is planning to form a subcommittee to investigate diversity in the entertainment industry. Bustamante referred to the plan Tuesday during a Los Angeles meeting of the Commission for One California where several industry insiders spoke about the lack of diversity in the new fall television season. Screen Actors Guild President Richard Masur and actress Anne-Marie Johnson were among those who blasted the four major networks for not including more multiculturalism in their new series. Bustamante said looking at the industry was important in helping Californians live together in harmony. Executives from Fox, NBC, CBS and UPN were asked to attend the meeting but declined to participate. Rick Mater, senior vice president of broadcast standards for the WB network, was the only industry executive who attended.

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Zanucks Take Oscar Reins: The 72nd annual Academy Awards, to take place March 26 at the Shrine Auditorium, will have new producers: filmmakers Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck, who themselves won a best picture Oscar in 1989 for “Driving Miss Daisy.” It will be the first time in 72 years that a woman will produce the show. They replace Gilbert Cates, who has produced nine Oscar telecasts, including the last three.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

San Francisco Opera Post: San Francisco Opera has named a new general director: Pamela Rosenberg, currently joint general director and director of operations at Germany’s Stuttgart Opera. Rosenberg--who will become the only woman to head a major U.S. opera company--takes the San Francisco post on Aug. 1, 2001, replacing the retiring Lofti Mansouri, who has led the company since 1988. The Stuttgart Opera--which went from financial difficulty to sound fiscal health in Rosenberg’s 10 years at its helm--was named the world’s best opera company in 1994, 1998 and 1999 in a poll of international critics. Rosenberg, a Los Angeles native, will remain at Stuttgart Opera through September 2000.

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Another Bowl Season: Hollywood Bowl Orchestra principal conductor John Mauceri has signed a new one-year contract calling for him to lead 17 concerts at the Bowl in the summer of 2000--his 10th season at the venue. He will also conduct two programs at the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, on Oct. 27 and Feb. 9, marking the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra’s first performances in an indoor venue since 1992. The October program will be “The Music of Hitchcock--A Centennial Celebration.”

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Domingo Breaks Caruso’s Record: Tenor Placido Domingo sang his way into the record books Monday night, opening New York’s Metropolitan Opera season for the 18th time, breaking legendary tenor Enrico Caruso’s previous record of 17 openings. Another singer, Argentine tenor Jose Cura, 36, tied a record set by Caruso in 1903, becoming only the second performer to make his Met debut in a leading role on the first night of a new season. Domingo, 58, first opened a Met season in 1971.

ART & ARCHITECTURE

Gehry and Guggenheim, Again?: Santa Monica-based architect Frank O. Gehry, who won international acclaim for his Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, has designed a proposed new $850-million Guggenheim facility comprising a 45-story structure rising over four piers along Manhattan’s East River. According to the New York Times, the Guggenheim has submitted the proposal to the city’s Planning Commission. However, Guggenheim Deputy Director Judith Cox told the paper that the design is “entirely speculative” and “represents purely internal ideas that emerged from a brainstorming session.”

POP/ROCK

Grammys All Around: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is releasing “The Ultimate Grammy Box,” a four-CD boxed set featuring more than 70 songs that have either won Grammys (from the awards’ inception in 1958 to the present) or been voted into the Recording Academy’s Hall of Fame. Featured artists include Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Marvin Gaye, John Lennon and Bonnie Raitt. The release, on Sony’s Columbia/Legacy label, is due in stores on Nov. 16.

QUICK TAKES

Former “Law & Order” co-star Carey Lowell, who played assistant district attorney Jamie Ross on the NBC drama for two years, will reprise her role when she guest stars as an opposing defense counsel to her former boss, assistant district attorney Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston). The episode will air later this fall. . . . Cirque du Soleil has announced that a limited number of premium house seats will be available 30 minutes before each performance at the regular price of $55. Cirque’s “Dralion” continues at the Santa Monica Pier through at least Nov. 7.