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

TELEVISION

‘Dr. Laura’ Takes a Holiday: “Dr. Laura” will temporarily cease production this week, but the program’s distributor, Paramount, insists the series has not been canceled. The talk show hosted by controversial radio personality Laura Schlessinger will resume production in March after its hiatus, the studio said. With the show relegated to the wee morning hours in many major cities, the expectation has been that “Dr. Laura” won’t return for a second year, but Paramount has stated its intent to at least complete the current season, which runs through May. Meanwhile, Paramount has decided not to proceed with a talk show for comic Caroline Rhea that was planned for next fall.

Bye Bye ‘Baywatch’: Citing economic factors, Pearson Television said Wednesday it will end production on “Baywatch Hawaii,” the most recent incarnation of the long-running syndicated series starring David Hasselhoff and a team of lifeguards. New episodes of the 12-year-old series will continue through May.

PEOPLE

Cruise Files for Divorce: Two days after announcing their separation, Tom Cruise filed divorce papers Wednesday against Nicole Kidman in Los Angeles Superior Court. The filing states that the couple separated in December, some time before their 10th wedding anniversary on Christmas Eve. Cruise is asking for joint custody of the couple’s two children--Isabella, 8, and Conor, 6. According to Cruise’s attorney, Dennis Wasser, a top L.A. divorce lawyer who has handled several high-profile Hollywood splits: “It is Tom Cruise’s desire that the dissolution of the marriage be handled amicably. His major concern is the welfare of the parties’ children.”

Stewart Still Waiting: Rock singer Rod Stewart said Wednesday he was struggling to get his trademark raspy voice back after a cancerous growth was removed from his throat in April. In his first U.S. television interview about the surgery, Stewart told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he had faced the possibility of losing his voice altogether after a routine scan revealed he had a tumor on his thyroid gland. Stewart, 56, said the surgery had been successful but that his singing voice had not yet returned completely. “As you can hear,” he said, “it’s not properly back yet, but it will [be]. It just needs to be retrained, as they cut through the muscles.”

Museum Posts Filled in Orange County: The Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach has filled two top posts, officials announced Wednesday. The new chief curator, Elizabeth Neilson Armstrong, was the senior curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. The new development director is John Crabtree-Ireland, former associate director of annual and special gifts at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. OCMA had been without a curator since September 1999.

QUICK TAKES

Fox has added a seventh episode of “Temptation Island,” to air Feb. 28. The reality series previously had been scheduled to end Feb. 21, when the competition includes the Grammy Awards on CBS. . . . Baritone Hakan Hagegard has canceled his Feb. 16 recital at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, due to what a spokesman described as scheduling conflicts.