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

TV & MOVIES

Appeal to Hollywood: Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) took their plea for an entertainment industry “code of conduct” public Monday night in a New York meeting attended by about 200 members of the entertainment industry. Panelists at the Creative Coalition forum, co-hosted by actor William Baldwin, also included Empower America co-director William Bennett, who, with Lieberman and Brownback, drafted “An Appeal to Hollywood,” a document calling for entertainment companies to apply higher moral and ethical standards to their work. Creative Coalition executive director Robin Bronk said Tuesday that the meeting examined whether some sort of government intervention would be “appropriate” in the entertainment industry, which has been criticized for glamorizing violence in portrayals on film, television, music and video. “It’s a pretty slippery slope as far as government censorship and intervention goes,” Bronk said, while calling Monday’s hourlong meeting a “significant step” toward exploring the issue. Bronk declined to say which Hollywood executives were on Monday’s guest list, but noted that there were representatives present from the networks, cable stations and movie studios.

*

Drag Queens: Billy Crystal and Jamie Lee Curtis have been chosen to receive Harvard University’s annual Hasty Pudding awards, given by the university’s drama department for acting achievements. As tradition mandates, Curtis will earn her honor by leading a Feb. 10 parade through the streets of Harvard Square with male Harvard students in drag, and Crystal, who will be roasted on Feb. 17, must accept his honor in a bra and wig. Previous Hasty Pudding recipients include Jodie Foster, Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.

TELEVISION

Diddly Adieu: Maude, the wife of Homer Simpson’s annoying do-good neighbor Ned Flanders, is rumored to be the character who dies in the Feb. 13 episode of “The Simpsons.” Executive producer Mike Scully, however, wouldn’t say that Maude’s demise is definite, adding that other possibilities include school principal Seymour Skinner and Moe the bartender. A dead giveaway, however, is the episode’s title “Alone Again, Natura-Diddly,” a play on Ned’s annoyingly chirpy overuse of the word “diddly.” What’s more, Maggie Roswell, who provides Maude’s voice, has left the show because she tired of commuting from Denver to Los Angeles to record her lines. The voices of Skinner and Moe are done, respectively, by series regulars Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria, both of whom also voice a number of other characters on the series.

*

Oxygen Update: Although Oxygen--the women’s cable network backed by former Nickelodeon executive Geraldine Laybourne, the Carsey-Werner Co. and Oprah Winfrey--launches today, it won’t be available in most of the Southern California area. About 78,000 of the region’s 5 million homes will receive the new network, including GTE subscribers in Ventura and Charter Communications systems in Riverside, Long Beach, Malibu and Thousand Oaks. Oxygen expects to be in nearly 10 million homes nationally later this month--about one in seven cable households--and said it’s confident the channel’s presence will gradually increase.

*

Fox Moves: Fox will premiere “Titus,” a comedy about the “weekly domestic disturbances” in the life of comedian Christopher Titus, on March 20, in the Monday 8:30 p.m. time slot. Stacy Keach plays Titus’ five-times-married alcoholic father. . . . In other Fox news, the network is close to ordering 13 more episodes of its big mid-season hit series “Malcolm in the Middle.” . . . And the animated comedy “Family Guy” will return to the network’s schedule on March 7, airing Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m.

RADIO

Whither the Music: KACE-FM (103.9) and sister station KRTO-FM (98.3) may be planning a different format under new ownership, but on Tuesday its programming consisted of dead air. The Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. purchased the stations from Cox Radio Inc. last year and formally took over at midnight Monday, moments after KACE, L.A.’s last big R&B; station, went off the air. It remained unclear Tuesday when the stations will begin Spanish-language music programs. Calls to Dallas-based Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. and the new station manager were not returned.

QUICK TAKES

Lisa Marie Presley is engaged again, to Hawaiian-born musician John Oszajca, 25, “Access Hollywood” will report today. Oszajca, whose solo debut album is due in April on Interscope Records, and Presley, 31, reportedly met last May. In addition to Presley’s much publicized two-year marriage to pop star Michael Jackson, she has two children from her first marriage, to musician Danny Keough. . . . Top-selling rapper Jay-Z, 29, was indicted in New York Monday on assault charges for allegedly stabbing record executive Lance Rivera, 33, during a Dec. 1 nightclub brawl. The rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter, faces up to 22 years in prison. His arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 22.