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

PEOPLE

He’s a Winner Too: “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Regis Philbin reported on “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.” The 67-year-old host of ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” underwent a procedure Monday that successfully cleared a blocked artery. He stayed one night in a New York hospital, adding that he’d kept the procedure quiet because he didn’t want to worry anyone. Philbin, who has been juggling his syndicated talk show with “Millionaire,” said that doctors had been monitoring a small blockage on his right side since 1993, when he had a similar one removed from his left side. A stress test several weeks ago revealed that the right blockage had grown, he explained. “Now it got a little heavy, so they decided, ‘Would you like to come in and have an angioplasty?’ ” he said. Instead he ended up getting an atherectomy, a procedure in which doctors use a rotating shaver on the end of a catheter to clear coronary arteries blocked by plaque. The catheter is generally inserted through a blood vessel in the leg or arm, and threaded through vessels to the blocked artery.

TV/RADIO

NBC About-Face on Pax: Bowing to pressure from the network’s affiliated stations, NBC has postponed plans to repeat “The NBC Nightly News” on Pax TV, a mere 10 days after announcing the deal. The network will delay a final decision while stations work on agreements to sell local ad time for Pax--a fledgling network in which NBC controls a one-third stake. NBC wants to spread its programming across the two networks as a cost-saving move, while affiliates see that as undermining their role as the exclusive provider of network fare. Alan Frank, president of NBC’s affiliates board, said the network needs to develop its strategy for Pax with affiliates so such programming moves will “be seen as opportunities and not threats.”

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‘Voices of the Shoah’: In commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday, KCRW-FM (89.9) airs a two-hour special at 2 p.m., “Voices of the Shoah: Remembrances of the Holocaust,” the first audio documentary of survivor accounts, produced by Rhino Records. Compiled from British archives and current interviews conducted in the U.S., “Voices” draws from more than 180 interviews recorded between 1988 and 1998. KCRW will broadcast the first and fourth CD from Rhino’s four-CD boxed set. Actor Elliott Gould narrates the CDs, which Rhino released in March.

POP/ROCK

Billboard’s Latin Honors: Crooners Los Tri-O were the big winners at Thursday night’s Billboard Latin Music Awards in Miami, winning two best Mexican album awards (by a male group and by a new artist). The event airs Sunday on Telemundo. Mexican singer Luis Miguel, Puerto Rican singer Noelia and Mexican pop group Mana all won best pop album honors (for male, female and group, respectively). The remaining top Mexican album awards went to Alejandro Fernandez (male) and Priscila Y Sus Bolas de Plata (female); Puerto Rican metal band Puya won for rock album of the year, and L.A.’s Cypress Hill won best rap album. Puerto Rico’s Elvis Crespo, New York’s India and Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer won male, female and new artist awards, respectively, for best tropical/salsa album. San Jose’s Los Tigres del Norte won for best Mexican track, and Ricky Martin won for best pop track. This is the first time that the United States provided the most Billboard winners, with 13. Mexico, which had seven winners this time around, usually has the most winners.

DANCE

No Rockettes This Year: The Rockettes’ “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” will not return to Los Angeles this holiday season as expected. Although Radio City Entertainment still has a year left on its three-year contract with Universal’s presenter, House of Blues Concerts, a Radio City Entertainment spokeswoman called it “the best marketing strategy to take a year off.” She said the Rockettes are expected to return to Los Angeles for Christmas 2001, though it’s undetermined whether the show will be at Universal or another venue.

QUICK TAKES

Jeff Bridges will be the guest of honor Sunday night at the fourth annual gala dinner of the Raul Julia Ending Hunger Fund in Beverly Hills. . . . Jerry Nachman, former editor in chief of the New York Post and a former news director at WCBS-TV and WNBC-TV in New York, and Marilyn Wilson, who was senior vice president of reality, specials and late-night programming for ABC Entertainment, have been named executive producers of ABC’s late-night series “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher.” . . . “Schickele Mix,” hosted by Peter Schickele, begins airing Wednesday nights from 7 to 8 p.m. on KCSN-FM (88.5) May 3. Distributed by Public Radio International, the show is billed as a fun musical adventure with classical music as its starting point. . . . “WWF Smackdown!” hit a best-yet rating Thursday to kick off the May ratings sweeps, with 8.7 million viewers. The UPN telecast finished fourth among the six commercial broadcast networks, beating Fox and the WB. . . . Teen singer Christina Aguilera will launch her first national headline tour in Kansas City July 31. She’s scheduled to perform in 35 cities in 11 weeks. Southern California dates haven’t been set yet.