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

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Coming Full Cycle: Teen heartthrob Carson Daly, the host of MTV’s popular “Total Request Live,” will begin the first of two new nationally syndicated radio shows Monday, with the program airing locally weekdays noon-1 p.m. on KIIS-FM (102.7). The contemporary hits show, called “Most Requested,” will launch from Los Angeles on Monday but from then on will originate from New York. A second Daly-hosted Premiere Radio Networks show, focusing on alternative rock, is being developed for launch in the next couple of months, with the Los Angeles station still to be determined. Daly began his career in radio, and hosted the evening slot on Los Angeles’ KROQ-FM (106.7) before segueing to MTV.

*

BET Protest: More than 20 protesters gathered at the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel Wednesday in reaction to the recent firing of “BET Tonight” host Tavis Smiley. The marchers, including members of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center, staged the protest in conjunction with the appearance of Viacom President Mel Karmazin at the annual Hollywood Radio and Television Society Newsmaker luncheon at the hotel. Protest leaders maintained that Viacom, which owns BET, was behind Smiley’s termination. BET Chairman Robert Johnson said Monday that the firing was solely his decision, made following a dispute over an interview Smiley conducted that aired earlier this month on ABC, a rival of Viacom-owned CBS. Johnson said the interview should have been offered first to BET. CBS released a statement Wednesday denying that the network was involved in Smiley’s firing, calling it a “BET decision, pure and simple.”

*

Juvenile Rap: Top-selling rapper Juvenile was arrested on battery and other charges early Wednesday for allegedly smashing a champagne bottle over a man’s head and grabbing a police officer during a disturbance outside a Miami comedy club. He was released on $17,000 bond. The man hit by the champagne bottle, Jackson Saint Ange, was unconscious and taken to a hospital, police said, but was later released. Police said the fight erupted after the victim “dissed . . . the rap artist.”

*

Quick Takes: Maybe all those Oscar ads worked: ABC’s new Joan Cusack sitcom, “What About Joan,” drew 14.9 million viewers in its premiere Tuesday to become ABC’s most-watched midseason premiere in three years. . . . The L.A. engagement of David Henry Hwang’s rewrite of “Flower Drum Song” is now targeted for the Mark Taper Forum instead of its larger sister theater, the Ahmanson, according to production sources. However, a Taper spokesman said the show has not yet been scheduled. The production had been slated for the Ahmanson this spring but was canceled because of fund-raising and scheduling problems. . . . Sharon Stone has obtained a temporary restraining order against a man who allegedly stalked her, showed up at her L.A.-area home “disoriented” and told an employee that he had traveled from Italy “to marry her.” Police were called after Agostino P’omata, 32, allegedly told the employee that he had come “to take Sharon Stone.” He was taken by police to a mental hospital, according to court papers. . . . Pasadena Symphony Music Director Jorge Mester will dedicate the orchestra’s Saturday performance of the Verdi Requiem at Pasadena Civic Auditorium to the late Wayne Shilkret, the executive director of Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts who died last Thursday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 66. Shilkret was a former executive director of the Pasadena Symphony.