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

TV & MOVIES

Numbers Game: When ABC brass said last week that an average of 46.3 million viewers watched the March 26 Oscar telecast, they were apparently only counting for their most important constituents: advertisers. According to the Washington Post, the viewer average excluded the last 24 minutes of the program: 12:17 to 12:41 a.m. on the East Coast, where viewers were rapidly dropping off for bed. ABC was able to do this because the last commercial aired at 12:17 a.m., and after all, the purpose of Nielsen’s ratings is to enable broadcasters to set ad rates based on how many people see a sponsor’s sales pitch. With the final 24 minutes included in the count, the actual average number of viewers for the Oscar telecast was only 45 million, the Post reported--ranging from a high of 50 million in the show’s first hour to about 27 million who stuck it through to “American Beauty’s” best picture coronation.

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A Tale of Two Poles: Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda, who received an honorary Oscar last week for his career achievement, has donated his Academy Award statue to the prestigious Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where John Paul II taught theology before becoming pope. Wajda’s Oscar will be displayed along with other items donated by renowned Poles, including the Nobel medal of Krakow poet Wislawa Szymborska. Wajda said that his Oscar will show young people “that Polish filmmaking, which has an honorable past, also has a great future.” . . . Jagiellonian, meanwhile, has refused to grant an honorary doctorate to another Polish director, Roman Polanski, citing his involvement in a sex scandal with a minor decades ago. “Nobody questions his artistic achievements, but . . . there is a question of moral stance here, and therefore we had doubts,” said the school’s director, Franciszek Ziejka. The university’s senate voted 24-18, with eight abstentions, to strike Polanski from a list of artists and writers to be honored during celebrations marking Jagiellonian’s 600th anniversary. Ziejka said many were uncomfortable about giving Polanski the same honor awarded in 1983 to the pope.

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More ‘Falcone,’ Er, Pistone: CBS, which won’t let viewers get away from its new mob drama “Falcone” for the next eight nights, is also giving a platform to the real Joseph Pistone, the FBI agent on whose book the series (and preceding film “Donnie Brasco”) is based. Pistone, who went undercover to infiltrate the mob, will guest on tonight’s “Late Show With David Letterman,” after tonight’s two-hour “Falcone” premiere.

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Coping With Cancer: Adelphia Communications, a cable operator serving about 800,000 homes in the L.A. area, will make the Home Box Office documentary “Cancer: Evolution to Revolution” available to all its customers through April, with multiple showings on its public affairs channel. HBO asked cable operators to make the program available to everyone--not just HBO subscribers--when it aired last Thursday, but Adelphia was unable to comply because of technical reasons.

POP/ROCK

Some Springsteen Seats Left: A limited number of tickets remained available early Monday afternoon for a second Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band concert at the Arrowhead Pond. The May 22 show was added over the weekend after tickets went on sale for the group’s May 21 Anaheim date. No more shows are expected to be added to the engagement, a spokeswoman for the Nederlander Organization, the concerts’ promoter, said Monday.

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Assault Suit Settled: A black security guard who alleges that members of Motley Crue assaulted and shouted racial slurs at him during a 1997 concert has settled his federal lawsuit against the heavy-metal band. John Allen also accused band members of encouraging the crowd to attack him during the concert at North Carolina’s Greensboro Coliseum. Settlement terms were not disclosed. Last month, band members Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx each pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault charges in connection with the incident.

PERFORMING ARTS

Opera Endowment: Los Angeles Opera has received a $1-million endowment from longtime supporter and board member Flora L. Thornton. The gift will create the Jane and Peter Hemmings Production Fund in honor of Peter Hemmings’ planned retirement in June as the opera’s founding general director. Income from the fund will be used biannually to underwrite a company production.

QUICK TAKES

Actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston welcomed their second child, a daughter named Ella Bleu, at a Los Angeles hospital Monday. The couple’s son, Jett, turns 8 this month. . . . “Titanic” star Leonardo DiCaprio spent a day at the White House on Friday, interviewing President Clinton about the White House’s environmental efforts and his policy on global warming. The interview will air on ABC in an April 22 Earth Day special. . . . Actor Ed Burns, 32, has reportedly negotiated a deal to buy the late John F. Kennedy Jr.’s posh New York penthouse apartment for less than the $2.5-million asking price. But Burns, whose films include “Saving Private Ryan” and “She’s the One,” still needs approval from the property’s co-op board. . . . CNN’s business news network, CNNfn, will boost its weekday programming to 24 hours a day (up from the current 18) in June. . . . Best new artist Grammy winner Christina Aguilera will join Sting, Tom Jones, the Backstreet Boys, D’Angelo and Enrique Iglesias in VH1’s April 18 special “Men Strike Back.” . . . “Murder She Wrote: A Story to Die For,” a two-hour movie with Angela Lansbury reprising her Jessica Fletcher role, will air May 18 on CBS.