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

STAGE

Hello, Tony: Broadway booster Rosie O’Donnell will return to host this year’s Tony Awards, taking place at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on June 4. O’Donnell, who hosted the theater world’s biggest awards show in 1997 and 1998, took last year off due to her busy schedule, prompting a steep drop in the show’s ratings. The two-hour awards broadcast will air on CBS, immediately preceded by an hourlong Tony special on PBS. Nominations will be announced May 8. O’Donnell, meanwhile, also hosts the music industry’s Grammy Awards airing Feb. 23 on CBS.

POP/ROCK

Custody Battle: Testosterone-fueled recording star Kid Rock is in a custody fight with the mother of his 6-year-old son. Kelley South has filed motions in Michigan to gain custody of her son from the multi-platinum-selling musician, whose real name is Robert Ritchie. Ritchie, 28, currently has legal custody of Robert Ritchie Jr., while his mother has visitation rights. “Given the amount of time he travels, he’s not there to take care of the child,” South’s attorney said. The musician’s attorney, meanwhile, vowed to attempt to shield the court proceedings from media attention, saying: “[Kid Rock] doesn’t want all that. It’s a very important matter to him. This is his son.” A hearing is scheduled for Monday.

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Money Doesn’t Always Talk: ABBA, the Swedish quartet that topped the pop charts in the ‘70s, has turned down a $1-billion offer from American and British promoters to reunite after 17 years. “It is a hell of a lot of money to say no to, but we decided it wasn’t for us,” group member Benny Andersson told a Swedish tabloid.

ART

Era of the Blockbuster: A record number visited American art museums last year, according to an annual survey of museum attendance compiled by the London-based Art Newspaper, which credited blockbuster exhibitions on popular subjects such as Impressionism and Egyptian art. Leading the charge was the Los Angeles County Museum’s exhibition “Van Gogh’s Van Goghs,” which drew 821,004 visitors--the second-highest attendance in LACMA’s history, behind 1978’s “Treasures of Tutankhamen.” Second in the tally was “Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids” at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which attracted 473,234. Another nine U.S. exhibitions drew more than 300,000 visitors apiece. Millicent Gaudieri, executive director of the Assn. of Art Museum Directors, says that blockbuster shows offer both a public service and an opportunity for museums to build their audience. At their best, enormously popular shows “are educational for all segments of the public,” she said. “They also help museums with their operating budgets and allow for more programming within the institutions.”

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Ofili Purchase: Noting that its holdings are “rapidly becoming one of the most important collections of contemporary black artists in the world,” the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has announced its purchase of a major new work by Chris Ofili, the Turner Prize-winning British artist whose dung-spotted “Holy Virgin Mary” painting triggered a media and legal firestorm as part of the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s “Sensations” show. Purchased for an undisclosed price, the 1999 large-scale figurative painting--named “Princess of the Posse” after a song by rapper Queen Latifah--combines themes from art, craft and witchcraft with references to pop culture and non-Western traditions.

MOVIES

Standing Strong: Theater chains in El Salvador have ignored a government order to yank the film “Stigmata” from screens, saying the directive violated their freedom of expression. The Interior Ministry’s Public Entertainment Directorate had previously approved the U.S. film for audiences over 18, but decided to ban its exhibition amid complaints from a Roman Catholic archbishop after the religious-themed movie became a box-office phenomenon in the small Central American nation.

QUICK TAKES

Cyber-thriller “The Matrix” cleaned up at Internet company Hollywood.com’s second annual Trailer Awards ceremony Wednesday, winning trophies for the best action trailer, best use of music in a trailer, best teaser and best overall movie trailer. . . . Singer Mary J. Blige goes public for the first time about her battle with drugs and alcohol on today’s “Queen Latifah,” airing at 10 a.m. on KTTV. Blige, who attributes her problems to poor self-esteem, will perform on the show with Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliot. . . . Dick Vermeil, who retired Tuesday as head coach of the Super Bowl-winning St. Louis Rams, guests on tonight’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” . . . VH1’s five-night presentation last week of the “100 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll” propelled the cable network to its most-watched week ever. Also scoring recent record ratings was cable’s A&E;, whose Jan. 16 “Biography” installment on Oprah Winfrey became the network’s highest rated program ever. . . . Thomas Rhoads, former executive director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art, has been appointed manager of administration at the J. Paul Getty Trust. He succeeds Kristin Kelly, who has become a program manager at the Getty Conservation Institute. . . . The world music group Radio Tarifa has canceled its spring tour, including a Feb. 13 stop at UCLA’s Royce Hall, due to a band member’s illness.