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

TELEVISION

What Are Friends For?: Bruce Willis will moonlight as a guest star on three episodes of NBC’s “Friends.” Willis, who will donate his salary to charity, will appear as a favor to Matthew Perry, his co-star in the hit film “The Whole Nine Yards.” He’ll play the father of Ross’ 20-year-old girlfriend (Alexandra Holden). The first episode will air April 27, which kicks off the May ratings sweeps. Meanwhile, the “Friends” cast will take home the TV Guide Awards Editors’ Award for the ensemble’s “long-running contribution to television” on Sunday’s Fox broadcast. Also on Sunday, actor-writer-director Alan Alda picks up the Writers Guild’s Valentine Davies Award for having “brought dignity and honor to the profession of writing everywhere.”

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To the Tube and Beyond: “Buzz Lightyear of Star Command,” a traditionally animated series from Walt Disney Animation based on the “Toy Story” hero, will air this fall on ABC’s “One Saturday Morning” and “Disney’s One Too,” which is shown Sundays through Fridays on UPN and in syndication. In other kidvid news, “Pokemon” has championed the WB to another victory in the Saturday morning race, with the network attracting an average audience of 1.7 million kids age 2 to 11 during the February rating sweeps. That was enough to edge, in descending order, Nickelodeon, Fox and ABC.

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Oh, ‘God’: An NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City will not air the network’s animated comedy “God, the Devil and Bob,” which premieres Thursday. KSL-TV vice president and general manager Al Henderson said it “was not very funny” and that some of the humor was tasteless. Last summer, the station refused to carry the short-lived animated sitcom “Stressed Eric.”

PEOPLE

Out of This World: The force remains with George Lucas, who heads the 1999 list of celebrity moneymakers, according to Forbes magazine. The filmmaker earned $400 million last year, thanks in large part to “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” which became the second-highest grossing movie worldwide after “Titanic.” He earned more than twice as much as second-place Oprah Winfrey, whose talk show and other ventures pulled in $150 million.

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Houston, We Have a Problem: A New York City woman who wrote that Whitney Houston is her “supernatural reincarnated mother” and has sent her a four-tiered cake, underwear and other gifts, has been barred from contacting the singer. A New Jersey judge issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against Desiree D. Weeks, 36, in response to a lawsuit filed by Houston, who lives in Mendham, about 35 miles west of New York City.

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The Write Stuff: German screenwriter Curt Siodmak, who at 97 is the oldest working member of the Writers Guild, will appear at the L.A. County Museum of Art tonight at 7:30 for a screening of the silent 1929 German film “People on Sunday,” which was a landmark collaboration between Siodmak, his brother Robert and directors Fred Zinnemann and Billy Wilder, all of whom left Germany for the United States shortly after completing the film.

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Country Engagement: Country singer Vince Gill and gospel-pop star Amy Grant are engaged. “I can confirm that they are getting married,” said Gill’s spokeswoman. “Other than that, they’d like to protect their privacy.” Grant, whose pop hits include “Baby Baby” and “That’s What Love Is For,” was divorced from Christian singer Gary Chapman in June. Gill (“Go Rest High on That Mountain,” “I Still Believe in You”) was divorced from singer Janis Gill in 1997.

POP MUSIC

Dylan Ducats: Bob Dylan will do a pair of rare small-venue performances at the Sun Theatre in Anaheim on Friday. Tickets for the shows, scheduled for 7:30 and 10:30 p.m., will be available from the theater’s box office beginning Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and then through Ticketmaster at noon the same day.

QUICK TAKES

“VH1 Divas 2000: A Tribute to Diana Ross” will salute the singer April 11 at 9 p.m. The two-hour cable TV special will be taped at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. . . . The music of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys can be heard each Saturday on the Internet radio channel LuxuriaMusic.com (https://www.luxuriamusic.com) beginning today at 2 p.m. The “Heroes and Villains” broadcasts will feature the band’s recordings and related tunes from Marilyn Wilson’s band the Honeys, Glen Campbell and Van Dyke Parks. Host Chuck Kelley grew up two blocks from the Wilson family in Hawthorne. . . . The family of Social Distortion guitarist Dennis Danell, who died Monday at 38, apparently of a brain aneurysm, has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent in his name to the Orangewood Children’s Home, 401 The City Drive South, Orange, CA, 92868. Information: (714) 935-7584. There are no plans for a public memorial service, a spokeswoman for Social Distortion’s record company said Thursday. . . . The theatrical trailer for “Dinosaur,” a computer-generated film opening May 19, can be seen on the Disney (https://www.dinosaur.go.com) and Apple (https://www.apple.com) Web sites. . . . Film producer Arnon Milchan (“Fight Club,” “Entrapment”) talks about his past dealings in obtaining high-tech weapons for his native Israel on Sunday’s installment of CBS’ “60 Minutes” with Steve Kroft. . . . Singer Clint Black has picked up the Artist Humanitarian Award from the Country Radio Broadcasters in Nashville.