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

TELEVISION

‘Good Day’ Team to Get National Tryout

KTTV’s “Good Day LA” on-air team is getting a tryout on a nationally syndicated morning show called “Good Day Live.” The new show, which debuts on KTTV on Dec. 3 at 10 a.m. in an eight-week trial run, is being tested in five markets, including Los Angeles, by its syndicator, Twentieth Television.

The “Good Day LA” team of Steve Edwards, Jillian Barberie and Dorothy Lucey will be joined by correspondents from around the country. The local “Good Day LA” show will remain on the air weekdays from 7 to 9 a.m.

Country Music Awards Up, ‘Island’ Down

The Country Music Assn. Awards drew solid ratings for CBS on Wednesday, while the premiere of Fox’s “Temptation Island 2” failed to generate much heat, according to data released Thursday by Nielsen Media Research.

The two-hour CMA awards averaged 17.8 million viewers, a larger audience than CBS got for the Emmy Awards on Sunday and a 7% increase versus last year, when the country music show aired in early October.

At 9 p.m., meanwhile, a preview of “Temptation Island” on Fox drew a mere 8.9 million viewers, whereas the first edition premiered to more than 16 million viewers in January. “Island” finished a distant third in its time slot, behind the CMA Awards and NBC’s “The West Wing” (19.5 million). The Fox show will regularly play Thursdays at 9 p.m.

STAGE

Lane Cuts Back on ‘The Producers’

Nathan Lane, who has been suffering from chronic vocal fatigue, is back in “The Producers,” but he has reduced his playing schedule to six performances a week for the next two weeks.

Lane, who portrays rapscallion producer Max Bialystock in the hit musical, will not play the Wednesday and Saturday matinees through Nov. 18 on the advice of his doctor, a spokesman for the show says. His understudy, Brad Oscar, will fill in for him at those performances.

THE ARTS

Vatican Ex-Officials Accused in Art Fraud

Two former senior officials at the Vatican have been charged in Rome in an art fraud case.

According to London’s Guardian, Msgr. Michele Basso and Msgr. Mario Giordana are accused of trying to sell falsely attributed artwork to venues such as New York’s Metropolitan Museum and Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery. Most notable among the works: a marble bust, the Young St. John the Baptist, attributed to Michelangelo, and an antique Greek vase, said to be made by Euphronius.

Public prosecutor Francesco Polino alleged that one painting was stolen five years ago, and asked that 14 people be brought to trial, charged with fraud and breach of export laws. The case rests on whether the works are fake, genuine or merely falsely attributed.

Basso, who inherited the collection from fellow clergymen and people he counseled, says that the sales were intended to raise money to build a hospital.

MOVIES

Protesters Seeking’Shallow Hal’ Boycott

The Sacramento-based National Assn. to Advance Fat Acceptance has called for a boycott of the new Gwyneth Paltrow film “Shallow Hal,” saying the movie “reinforces stereotypes and myths about fat people.”

Even though the movie, which comes out today, has a message about the importance of inner beauty, the organization says that the ends don’t justify the means.

“Hollywood is intent upon perpetuating the myth that fat people are miserable and unattractive, and that the path to happiness is through losing weight,” said Maryanne Bodolay, who is the executive administrator of the association.

Officials at 20th Century Fox, which is releasing the film, had no immediate comment Thursday.

British Airline Scolds ‘Gutless’ Celebrities

The chief executive of British Airways has branded Hollywood’s film celebrities “gutless cowards” for being scared to fly since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, a British newspaper reported Thursday.

“They want everyone to see their movies and think how big and brave they are. But at the first sign of trouble, they cower under their beds like gutless cowards. It’s pathetic,” British Airways Chief Executive Rod Eddington was quoted as saying in the London Mirror.

QUICK TAKES

Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” which has been running at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills since Oct. 14, 2000, will close Dec. 2, at which point it will have logged 473 performances (and two previews) there....Composer Michel Legrand and lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman will be honored at the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers’ annual awards dinner at the Beverly Hilton tonight.... Limp Bizkit was named best group and Jennifer Lopez and Robbie Williams were chosen best female and male performer, respectively, at the MTV Europe Music Awards on Thursday.... Citing anxiety over the threat of further terrorist activity and a desire to be with her children, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has canceled the remainder of her U.S. tour, including a Nov. 17 performance at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.... Sophia Choi, who had been a morning news anchor at KCBS-TV until last month, has joined CNN Headline News as an anchor.