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

ART & ARCHITECTURE

Guggenheim Picks Brazil: The Guggenheim Museum will erect new facilities in four different Brazilian cities, officials said Monday, ending a heated competition for the New York-based arts organization’s first Latin American affiliate. After months of talks, the Guggenheim has decided to open branches in the tourist mecca of Rio de Janeiro, the colonial cities of Recife and Salvador, and the modernistic city of Curitiba. “[All four venues] will feature Brazilian art and the Brazilian art exhibits will circulate in the Guggenheims around the world,” said Alfredo Sirkis, Rio’s secretary of Urbanism. The Guggenheim sent a team of directors and architects, including L.A.’s Frank O. Gehry, to Brazil last November to visit potential sites, raising hopes that Brazil would become a required stop on the international art circuit. Gehry designed the Guggenheim’s famous outpost in Bilbao, Spain, and is the favored architect for the Salvador branch. All four cities now have until September to prepare final viability studies, select architects and find financing.

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Legally Exempt?: Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.) has introduced legislation that would exempt the controversial plan to build a World War II memorial on the grounds of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial from federal laws governing the proposal; the bill would also prohibit any further administrative or judicial review of the plan. Senate Bill 580 would require federal agencies to proceed with construction “without regard to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Commemorative Works Act or any other law pertaining to the siting or design for the World War II Memorial.” Charges that the current plan violates those laws form the basis of a suit filed by opponents last year. In March, the Justice Department asked for and received a stay in the case, citing several federal administrative approvals of the memorial that also might be invalid.

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Sold!: South Carolina’s Greenville County Museum of Art got an apparent bargain when it spent $73,237 to buy Andrew Wyeth’s 1967 painting, “The Apron,” at a recent Sotheby’s auction in New York. The museum had approved $150,000 for the purchase. The acquisition brings the museum’s Wyeth collection to 26 works.

TV & RADIO

Monologue Recap: Jay Leno is taking NBC’s “The Tonight Show” to the radio waves. “Last Night on ‘The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,’ ” a daily two-minute feature offering joke highlights from Leno’s monologue on the previous night’s show, debuted Monday on 130 radio stations nationwide. Although the feature is not yet heard in Los Angeles, syndicator Premiere Radio Networks says negotiations are underway, with the unnamed L.A. outlet expected to add the program soon.

POP/ROCK

Mooning Over Miami: The second annual Latin Grammys appear headed to Miami. The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences plans a press conference in Miami Wednesday that will feature a gallery of local politicians, a strong sign that the gala will not return in September to its inaugural Los Angeles home. South Florida is widely seen as the Latin music industry’s capital, but the academy opted for Staples Center last year after citing a Dade County ordinance that would have, in effect, barred any local support services for the event if Cuban nationals were allowed to perform. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last June tossed out that ordinance. Last year’s national Latin Grammys TV broadcast scored its highest ratings in Miami, with the L.A. market ranked fourth.

MUSIC

Wagner Flap: The 81-year-old director of Germany’s renowned Richard Wagner Festival--and the grandson of the famed composer, who founded the opera festival 125 years ago--has reportedly vowed to go to court to fight efforts to replace him with his estranged daughter. Wolfgang Wagner, whose lifetime contract gives him jurisdiction over the opera house where the annual summer festival is staged, has refused to leave his post, insisting no one else in the family is fit to carry out his duties. Singers and musicians have been complaining that Wagner is autocratic and offers them only one-year contracts, and both fans and artists have been urging him to step down for months. The festival’s board has named Eva Wagner-Pasquier--a well-known opera director who worked as her father’s assistant from 1968 to 1974 but became estranged from him when her parents divorced--as the next director, effective in October 2002. Wolfgang Wagner, however, has told Germany’s Focus magazine that he will not step down, and the magazine has reported that Bavarian Culture Minister Hans Zehetmair, who sits on the board, has already received legal advice about terminating the senior Wagner’s contract.

QUICK TAKES

A movie based on the life story of Ray Charles is in the works, with production slated to begin in the fall. The singer’s son, Ray Charles Jr., will co-produce. . . . Singer Sophie B. Hawkins will perform about four songs during a 1 p.m. in-store appearance Wednesday at the Santa Monica Robinsons-May store. Hawkins also plays at L.A.’s House of Blues on April 27. . . . Country music singer Loretta Lynn was resting at her Tennessee home Monday after nearly two weeks of treatment at a hospital for pneumonia. Lynn, 65, was discharged on Saturday. . . . Magician David Copperfield was briefly hospitalized in New York Friday after collapsing from what his studio called “extreme exhaustion” during rehearsals for his latest CBS-TV special. The special, “Tornado of Fire,” is scheduled to air tonight at 8. . . . “ER” star Alex Kingston, married to journalist Florian Haertel, gave birth to a daughter, Salome Violetta Haertel, last Wednesday.