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

ENTERTAINMENT

KABC Program Director Gone: Drew Hayes is out as program director of KABC-AM (790). A station spokeswoman attributed his departure Wednesday to “philosophical differences.” Under his watch, the talk station had sunk to its lowest audience share in nearly four decades, attracting only 1.9% of local radio listeners in the most recent Arbitron ratings. Among people 25 to 54 years old, the demographic that most advertisers target, KABC drew an even more miserly 1.5%, while in KABC’s own target of 35- to 54-year-olds, it was at 2.1%. Hayes, who had been general manager of the ESPN Radio Network, came to KABC in June 1998 to bolster its then 2.6% audience share. KABC President Bill Sommers said assistant program director Erik Braverman was a candidate to replace Hayes but added, “I’m open to everyone, and that’s serious.”

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Feud Over?: Marking an apparent end to a long-running feud, Marilyn Manson joined his old mentor Trent Reznor on stage Tuesday at the end of Nine Inch Nails’ concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The pair performed NIN’s “Starsuckers, Inc.” and Manson’s “The Beautiful People.” Reznor gave Manson and his group their big break when he signed them to his label, Nothing Records, in the mid-’90s, but the singers had a falling-out two years ago following the publication of Manson’s autobiography. In another indication of the end of hostilities, Manson co-directed and appears in the video for “Starsuckers.”

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French-Hollywood Feud?: European film companies should join forces to battle the mighty Hollywood machine, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said Wednesday at the start of the 53rd Cannes Film Festival. Warning against cinema being mere spectacle, Jospin said, “Faced with the all-powerful Hollywood majors, it seems obvious that an efficient response lies in the creation of film groups with a European dimension, which will be capable of rivaling the American industry.”

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Second Time Around: Composer and producer Rudy Perez won his second consecutive Songwriter of the Year Award at Wednesday night’s ASCAP Latin music awards show, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The award is given to the writer with the most charted songs of the year. Perez wrote songs that charted for pop singers Millie and Cristian Castro.

QUICK TAKES

Latin pop star Marc Anthony was married Tuesday night in Las Vegas to former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres. . . . Sidney Poitier will be the speaker at the USC School of Cinema-Television commencement Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the Shrine Auditorium, and Michelle Manning, Paramount Pictures’ president of production, who is a USC Cinema-Television alumna, will receive the Mary Pickford Alumni Award. . . . Darva Conger, the Fox TV show bride who rejected her instant husband and their bizarre marriage in what she said was a bid to restore her privacy, has bared all for an upcoming issue of Playboy magazine.