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

About Face: Criticized for reviewing scripts of TV shows, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has revised its guidelines in providing networks credit toward their public-service commitments for airing programs with anti-drug themes. Episodes will now only be reviewed after they are broadcast. Drug czar Barry McCaffrey’s statement said this was to “eliminate any misunderstandings and prevent any inference of federal intrusion in the creative process.”

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Thalberg for Warren: Warren Beatty will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 72nd Academy Awards ceremonies on March 26, it was announced Wednesday. “In discussing this award for Warren,” said Robert Rehme, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “our governors stressed his passion for film, for getting it just right, and his courage in producing pictures that many other producers might have considered too dangerous to try.” Beatty is the only person to be nominated for Oscars as producer, director, writer and actor on the same film, and that happened twice--for “Heaven Can Wait” in 1978 and “Reds” in 1981. He received an Oscar as best director for “Reds.” The Thalberg Award was established in 1937 to honor “creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production,” the academy said.

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Bada Bing: “The Sopranos” opened its second season Sunday with terrific ratings by HBO’s standards, attracting an estimated 7.6 million viewers. That’s the highest rating for a pay channel since HBO first aired “Titanic,” more than doubling the critically acclaimed mob drama’s average audience last season.

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Latin Grammys to Debut Here: The inaugural Latin Grammy Awards will be held at a Los Angeles arena--still to be determined--on Sept. 15 and telecast live by CBS, it was announced Wednesday by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. The bilingual global show will be produced by Pierre Cossette, who also produces the Grammy telecasts. Nominations in 40 categories are expected to be announced in August.

QUICK TAKES

Ratt’s concert tonight at the Sun Theatre has been canceled, along with the rest of a five-week tour, because lead singer Stephen Pearcy abruptly decided last week to leave the group, according to the band’s manager. . . . Santana’s “Supernatural,” still in the glow from its 10 Grammy nominations, is the No. 1 album in the nation for the second consecutive week and has now topped 5 million in total sales. The nation’s new No. 1 single: “I Knew I Loved You” by Savage Garden. . . . James Garner is joining the cast of CBS’ “Chicago Hope” this spring.