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

TV & RADIO

Prager Exiting KABC: The overhaul of KABC-AM’s (790) on-air lineup continues, with Dennis Prager--an 18-year veteran of the talk-radio station--leaving Nov. 10. He’ll move to KIEV-AM (870) starting Nov. 13, airing weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon. The move is precipitated by Prager losing his syndication deal with Jones Radio Network as of Dec. 29; KABC said it sought to continue his show locally, but Prager declined. KIEV, meanwhile, will air the synicated show through its December run and hopes to keep Prager somehow after that. At KABC, meanwhile, Al Rantel’s show will move up two hours, airing from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by Gloria Allred and Mark Taylor from 1 to 3 p.m.

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Election Returns: The Fox network has decided to carry election night coverage for the first time, with Brit Hume and Paula Zahn’s Fox News Channel political coverage to be simulcast on the broadcast channel. Fox took some heat for its decision to preempt the presidential debates, especially the first, when it instead debuted James Cameron’s “Dark Angel” series. That prompted Fox News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch to offer last Friday’s 8 o’clock hour to the two presidential candidates for free.

PEOPLE WATCH

Royal Arts Tour: Britain’s Prince Andrew begins a five-day Southern California visit on Wednesday that will include a Thursday tour (accompanied by the architect Frank O. Gehry) of the downtown Disney Concert Hall construction site and a Friday stop at the Getty Center’s exhibition of Raphael drawings from Windsor Castle. Then on Saturday, the Duke of York will go Hollywood when he presents director Steven Spielberg with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles’ Britannia Award during ceremonies at the Century Plaza Hotel.

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Scrambling Tales: New York’s Metropolitan Opera had to make some quick changes when it lost not one, but two singers for Sunday’s gala concert benefiting the Metropolitan Opera Guild. First mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli dropped out with a cold, and then her replacement, mezzo Olga Borodina, woke up Sunday morning with no voice, Met general manager Joseph Volpe said. So Volpe turned to the singers who’d performed at the Met on Saturday and Monday. . . . The inaugural Sun Valley Film Festival was also hit with a last-minute change of plans when “West Wing” star Martin Sheen, who was slated to receive the event’s George C. Scott Career Achievement Award Saturday night, decided to skip the event to help stump for presidential candidate Al Gore with a series of hastily arranged weekend appearances in a series of swing states. Sheen did stop off at an Oregon TV studio, however, to tape an acceptance and apology for the film festival; it arrived at the event’s gala dinner with only minutes to spare.

DANCE

Help on the Way: New York’s Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, which closed its doors in May for lack of funds, has apparently been bailed out by a $750,000 capital grant promised by a Republican state senator facing a tough reelection battle. Roy Goodman, chairman of the state senate’s special committee on the arts and cultural affairs, told the New York Times that the grant, from a state capital fund, is intended to help the modern dance company and school survive a “cultural emergency” and that its timing has nothing to do with next week’s elections. The grant is contingent on the Martha Graham Center--which has also been facing a challenge from the Martha Graham Trust over rights to the Graham name and repertory--raising another $750,000 in private donations.

POP/ROCK

Axl Rose’s New (Band) Mates: The reactivated Guns N’ Roses will put out a new album sometime next year and start a world tour next summer, according to the group’s management. Singer Axl Rose will be joined by guitarists Paul Tobias, Robin Finck and Buckethead, keyboardist Dizzy Reed and former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson for the album, “Chinese Democracy.” A drummer has not been announced, but a GNR Web site lists former Primus drummer Brian “Brain” Mantia in the spot. The site also reports that the album will be released in January, although GNR’s management would not confirm the target date.

QUICK TAKES

C. Michael Greene, president and CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan are expected to announce today that the 43rd annual Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 21 at the downtown Staples Center. It will be the second consecutive year at Staples for the record industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony, and the event’s third straight year in Los Angeles. The Grammys alternated between Los Angeles and New York during most of the ‘80s and ‘90s. . . . Film stars Andie MacDowell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”) and Toni Collette (“The Sixth Sense”) have joined Dennis Quaid and Greg Kinnear in the cast of HBO’s TV movie adaptation of Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Dinner With Friends,” which is scheduled to be shown in August. . . . A U.S. district judge in Miami ruled Monday that the Americans With Disabilities Act is not broad enough to cover the screening process for ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” A Miami group had sued the network saying that its current system prevents the deaf and others unable to use touch-tone telephones from becoming contestants.