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

POP/ROCK

Petty, Hayes, Ramones in Rock Hall of Fame

The punk, funk and rock of the 1970s is making a push into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with the Ramones, Talking Heads, Isaac Hayes and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers leading the new class of inductees announced Thursday

Artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording.

The selection of the Ramones, a band that defined the ethos of punk, comes eight months after singer Joey Ramone died of cancer at age 49. Talking Heads, another key band in the 1970s New York club scene, spearheaded rock’s forays into electronic and world music, while Hayes created a memorable funk moment with his score to the film “Shaft.” Petty and his band used influences such as the Byrds and Southern roots music to fashion a series of hits.

Also announced for induction were stars from an earlier era: Brenda Lee and Gene Pitney. Nashville guitar stalwart Chet Atkins was named in the “sidemen” category and Stax Records co-founder Jim Stewart in the nonperformer group.

The 17th annual induction ceremony will take place March 18 in New York and be broadcast on VH1 two nights later.

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McCartney Wanted to Hold Harrison’s Hand

Paul McCartney on Thursday described his poignant farewell to George Harrison, a reunion that took place two weeks before “the quiet Beatle” died on Nov. 29 at age 58.

The meeting lasted a couple of hours, McCartney told BBC Radio, during which he and the man he called his “baby brother” laughed, joked and held hands.

“Afterwards, I realized I’d never, ever held his hand,” McCartney said. “We’d been to school together and got on buses together and we didn’t hold each other’s hands. It was like a compensation. He was rubbing his thumb up and down my hand and it was very nice.”

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RADIO

Pacifica Settles Suits

to End Infighting

Pacifica Foundation, which owns KPFK-FM (90.7) and four other radio stations nationwide, settled three lawsuits on Wednesday with dissident board members and disgruntled listeners in a move designed to bring peace to a network hobbled by bitter infighting for more than three years.

Months of negotiations culminated with an agreement under which the majority of Pacifica’s board of directors agreed to resign and pay the foundation $400,000, according to Adam Belsky, attorney for the plaintiffs.

Minority board members and irate supporters of left-leaning Pacifica’s listener-funded stations had filed suits alleging that the board majority squandered foundation funds and tried to steer the network away from its progressive course to the mainstream.

Under the settlement, an interim board will meet in the coming weeks to defuse the chaos that has beset the network, according to Pacifica board Chairman and former Los Angeles City Councilman Bob Farrell.

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THE ARTS

Missing Rockwells

Turn Up in Brazil

Working with Brazilian police, the FBI has recovered three Norman Rockwell paintings valued at up to $1 million that were stolen from a Minnesota art gallery in 1978, smuggled out of the country and hidden, most recently in a farmhouse in Brazil.

The FBI said that a Rio de Janeiro art dealer, Jose Maria Carneiro, turned the paintings over after questioning by U.S. and Brazilian authorities--the first instance of cooperation under a new Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the two countries.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the paintings--”So Much Concern,” “The Spirit of 1976” and “Summer or a Hasty Retreat”--were owned by Brown & Bigelow Co., a St. Paul calendar publisher that loaned them to a local gallery for a temporary exhibition. They were stolen after an opening-night party, along with four other Rockwells and a supposed Renoir seascape that turned out to be a fake. FBI agent Coleen Rowley said the crime appears to have been the work of a “professional burglary-theft group” operating in the Twin Cities at the time.

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MOVIES

Bush Helps Enhance ‘Life’ for the Blind

Former President George Bush will “describe” the holiday Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” for blind and visually impaired moviegoers. The project is made possible through a technology called TheatreVision, developed by Retinitis Pigmentosa International, in which a track describing the action is inserted amid the dialogue.

The new version of the movie will premiere at Theaters 1 and 2 at Universal Studios, 100 Universal Plaza in Universal City, on Sunday at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. before touring the country next year. Reservations: (818) 992-0631.

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QUICK TAKES

California Artists Radio Theatre will present works from authors such as Dickens, O. Henry, Joyce and Alcott in “Christmas With CART,” to be taped Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at the Beverly Garland Theater, 4222 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood. The program will be broadcast later this month on National Public Radio.... Saturday’s “Silverlining Silverlake” benefit concert at the Hollywood Palladium has been canceled following the withdrawal of headliner Third Eye Blind due to the illness of a band member. Tonight’s installment of the fund-raiser for the Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic will take place as scheduled at the Paramour Estate, with Beck added to a bill that includes the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Elaine Dutka