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

MOVIES & TELEVISION

Recovering From Bypass Surgery: Talk show host David Letterman, 52, underwent a hastily scheduled multiple bypass heart surgery on Friday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. His surgeon termed the procedure “a complete success with no complications” and predicted a rapid recovery, saying that Letterman “has the heart muscle of a 20-year-old.” Letterman, who has very high blood pressure and a family history of heart trouble, had entered the hospital for an angiogram--a diagnostic test that his spokesman had called a “precaution” because of the host’s risk factors for heart trouble. “He’s doing fine,” the spokesman said after the surgery. During his recovery, CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman” will air reruns. The show posted its best ratings in six years on Wednesday with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s appearance.

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Oscar Watch: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences continues to whittle away the field of potential Oscar nominees, announcing on Friday the seven films being considered for the sound effects editing Oscar. They are “Any Given Sunday,” “Fight Club,” “The Green Mile,” “The Matrix,” “The Mummy,” “Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace” and “Three Kings.” Final Oscar nominees will be announced Feb. 15.

POP/ROCK

L.A. to Host Latin Grammys: The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences plans to announce Wednesday that it has chosen Los Angeles over Miami as the host city for the first Latin Grammy Awards, scheduled for a September broadcast on CBS. Although Miami is home to most Latin music labels and stars, the academy was discouraged by a Dade County ordinance that would effectively prohibit the Latin Grammys from taking place in Miami if musicians from Cuba were allowed to participate. The ordinance--which is being challenged in court for conflicting with U.S. policy regarding free cultural exchange between the United States and Cuba--would bar participation of such top artists as Ibrahim Ferrer and Los Van Van.

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Timing Is ‘Everything’: Lauryn Hill’s “Everything Is Everything” has lost its Grammy nomination for best female R&B; vocal because the song was released before the start of the eligibility period, Oct. 1, 1998. The next highest vote-getter, Faith Evans’ “Love Like This,” joins the nominees in “Everything’s” place. The nomination switch leaves Evans and Hill with two nominations each.

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Mottola’s New Bride-to-Be: Mexican soap opera star and singer Thalia confirms in this month’s Latina magazine that she’s engaged to Sony Music Chairman and Chief Executive Thomas D. Mottola, the former husband of Mariah Carey and the man behind “crossover” successes Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony. Thalia will appear with Paul Rodriguez in her first English-language feature film, “Mambo Cafe,” later this year. She also plans to release an English-language album but insists that her engagement to Mottola has nothing to do with her desire to break into the mainstream American market.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Filmharmonic Target: The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new partner in its Filmharmonic series is the Shooting Gallery, the New York-based independent film production company best known for the Oscar-winning movie “Sling Blade.” The series--created to foster composer, filmmaker and orchestra collaborations--has been bogged down in funding and vision problems. According to orchestra executive Emily Laskin, the Shooting Gallery will bring indie talent plus new money sources to the project. It shares the “same sensibility as music director Esa-Pekka Salonen,” she said. “They are both interested in pushing the envelope artistically.”

QUICK TAKES

The L.A. County Museum of Art’s department of music programs will receive the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publisher’s award for “adventurous programming” in chamber music at the annual ASCAP/Chamber Music America conference in New York tonight. LACMA presents five annual concert series. . . . An episode of Fox’s “That ‘70s Show” titled “The Pill” has won the Environmental Media Assn.’s annual Turner Prize for the “prime-time drama or comedy television episode that best addresses the environmental problems of population and growth.” . . . KCOP-TV will shuffle its late-night lineup beginning Monday, moving the dating program “Blind Date” to 11 p.m. and “The Martin Short Show” back half an hour, to 11:30 p.m. “Blind Date” will also continue to be shown at 6 p.m. . . . Jason Alexander, Colm Wilkinson and Sam Harris will join the cast of “Les Miserables” at the Ahmanson Theatre on Monday in “Les Miscellaneous,” a one-night cabaret show benefiting the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Jeffrey Goodman Special Care Clinic. Tickets are $30 to $150. . . . The host of Comedy Central’s “Win Ben Stein’s Money” was robbed at gunpoint by two men in the garage of his Los Angeles home on Jan. 5, police said this week. Stein, 55, who said he has now hired a part-time bodyguard, reported handing over his wallet with about $1,000 cash, credit cards and his paycheck before the men ran away.