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

TELEVISION

‘Millionaire’ Cracks Color Barrier: After 84 shows and 192 people in the hot seat, ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” finally has had a black contestant sit across from Regis Philbin. Sunday’s edition marked something of a milestone for TV’s most popular program, which has been criticized for having overwhelmingly white male players and which even resorted in February to issuing an on-air plea for more diverse entrants. Steven Maurice Clark, a Harvard-educated surgeon from Aiken, S.C., walked off with $32,000 after guessing wrong on a question that could have earned him $250,000. “To me, [the makeup of the contestant pool] shouldn’t be an issue, and I think if I had been on in November, it wouldn’t have been an issue,” Clark said Monday. No mention was made of the milestone when the show aired Sunday. Clark said that he and Philbin talked about it, and he said he believed the show had been criticized unfairly, but the conversation was edited out.

MOVIES

Road Running Through Internet: The fourth stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s popular Looney Tunes series--featuring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner--will go on sale via the Internet on Wednesday--the first new postage stamp to be dedicated in cyberspace. Normally, stamp dedications are held in one city where the stamps are sold exclusively during the first day of issue, but this time, that exclusive city is all of cyberspace. The stamp will debut at 1 p.m. in a dedication ceremony being Webcast from New York’s Children’s Museum. The ceremonies will be available at three sites: America Online keyword: BeepBeep, or at https://www.warnerbros.com or at the Postal Service’s Web site at https://www.stampsonline.com.

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Talk, Talk, Talk: The folks at Moviefone apparently have been watching a lot of TV reruns. In what a spokesman described as “taking a page from Kramer”--referring to a memorable “Seinfeld” episode in which Michael Richards’ character answers misdirected calls to the movie listing service--Moviefone has begun using “speech recognition technology” in which callers can verbalize their ZIP code and movie titles, rather than entering them numerically on their telephone keypads. In the Seinfeld episode, Kramer’s character, whose phone number is changed to one confusingly similar to Moviefone’s 777-FILM, imitates the service, asking callers: “Why don’t you just tell me the name of the movie you’d like to see?” Now, Moviefone notes, “callers can do just that.”

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Copycat Stabbing: A Paris teen wearing the ghoulish mask from the “Scream” horror films stabbed his father and stepmother the day after the third movie in the series opened in France, French media reported Monday. The victims were recovering in the hospital, while the 16-year-old, who reportedly saw “Scream 3” on the eve of the stabbing Thursday, was placed under investigation for attempted murder. Another French teenager, meanwhile, was also reportedly arrested after being found near a suburban train station early Sunday carrying a kitchen knife and dressed as the “Scream” assailant. “Scream 3” opened in U.S. theaters in February.

THEATER

Educated to Be Randy Newman: Tony Award winner Scott Waara will play the title character in South Coast Repertory’s “The Education of Randy Newman,” loosely based on the songwriter’s life and music, June 2 to July 2. Waara recently starred in “The People vs. Mona” at Pasadena Playhouse. The “Newman” cast also will feature Jordan Bennett, Gregg Henry, Sherry Hursey, John Lathan, Allison Smith and Jennifer Leigh Warren.

POP/ROCK

Name Game: Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre--Orange County’s outdoor pop-rock concert facility that has hosted such acts as Michael Jackson, Alanis Morissette and the Lollapalooza festival--has changed its name to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, following the Arrowhead Pond, Edison International Field and Staples Center in taking on the moniker of its corporate sponsor. Verizon Wireless--formerly AirTouch Cellular--has a seven-year, multimillion-dollar contract with SFX Entertainment, the New York-based concert giant that operates the amphitheater.

QUICK TAKES

TV host Kathie Lee Gifford does a live chat today at 4 p.m. at https://www.twec.com. . . . After only five weeks on the air, Fox has renewed its new Monday night comedy “Titus,” starring stand-up comic Christopher Titus, for a second season. . . . Rapper turned actor-director Ice Cube has a deal with HBO to develop a series pilot about the behind-the-scenes world of rap music. . . . Riccardo Muti, currently music director of Milan’s La Scala opera house, has been asked to succeed the retiring Kurt Masur as the New York Philharmonic’s music director, but Muti has yet to say whether he’ll accept the post, the New York Times reported Monday.

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Kudos: Tammy Wynette will be the first posthumous recipient of the Academy of Country Music’s Pioneer Award. Trisha Yearwood, the Judds, Patty Loveless, Martina McBride and Dolly Parton will pay tribute to Wynette during the academy’s 35th annual awards broadcast May 3 on CBS. . . . Atlantic Records Group Co-Chairman Ahmet Ertegun and cabaret singer Bobby Short were among those honored in Washington on Monday with “Living Legend” medals as part of the Library of Congress’ bicentennial celebration. They were cited for having “advanced and embodied the quintessentially American ideal of individual creativity, conviction, dedication and exuberance.” . . . Composer James Newton Howard (“The Fugitive,” “The Sixth Sense,” “ER”) will receive the Henry Mancini Award for lifetime achievement, and film director Stanley Donen (“Singin’ in the Rain,” “On the Town”) will get the Opus Award for his work in collaboration with composers during the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ 15th annual Film and TV Music Awards tonight at the Beverly Hilton.