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

TELEVISION

ABC Series: A Thorn in Network’s Side

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse: ABC executives, pummeled for their dismal showing in prime time last season, are now taking flak for a program they’d already canceled.

The latest nail in the coffin for the comedy “My Adventures in Television” not only provoked an apology from one of its stars but also caused Kodak to withdraw additional advertising for the duration of the show’s run.

The series’ June 5 installment provoked criticism from some viewers for its handling of a story about a woman embarking on a Chinese adoption--a responsibility she soon comes to regret. “If you break her, you bought her,” she tells a friend holding the child. “You can get a prettier baby if you offer blue jeans as a bribe,” someone jokes.

Responding to what he said were hundreds of e-mails, actor Ed Begley Jr. apologized to the senders. “It was our intention to show how shallow the character Lindsay was,” he said, “not to cast the slightest negative image on babies or the heroes and heroines who adopt them.”

An ABC spokesman said “it was never the producer’s intent for this character to be emulated or for the series to be perceived as anything other than a farce on the absurdity of Hollywood.” Executive producer Peter Tolan advised people to “get a sense of humor”--and to take comfort in the fact that the sitcom will be gone in a few more weeks.

Victoria’s Secret Gets Return Engagement

CBS is planning to air a Victoria’s Secret fashion show during the key ratings month of November, despite the controversy that erupted when ABC broadcast a similar program last season. As before, the show will feature women in sexy lingerie and skimpy undergarments.

Though CBS executives declined to comment Tuesday, insiders said the network hooked up with the lingerie company after ABC passed on the project.

The ABC program prompted dozens of complaints from viewers and feminist groups and sparked an investigation by a member of the Federal Communications Commission about violation of decency standards.

“Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” was a hit with viewers, however--especially males.

THE ARTS

Former Opera Executive to Head Lincoln Center

Bruce Crawford, former president and general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, was named chairman of Lincoln Center at the board’s annual meeting Monday, taking over the post Beverly Sills occupied for eight years.

Crawford, 73, chairman of Omnicom, an advertising conglomerate, will have his hands full. In addition to overseeing institutions such as the New York City Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera, he’ll be responsible for the center’s contentious $1.2-billion redevelopment plan. The job is so complex, the New York Times reports, that the board had considered appointing co-chairmen--a notion Crawford rejected.

“It’s a huge job in terms of strategy and planning and raising a great deal of money,” he said. “And there is the whole question of getting constituents to march in the same direction. There’s a lot to do. But it’s difficult to do with more than one leader.”

THEATER

Kudos for Drabinsky’s Return to the Stage

Producer Garth Drabinsky (“Ragtime,” “Show Boat”) has been absent from the theater scene ever since the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted him and a partner, Myron I. Gottlieb, on six counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1999.

But according to the Toronto Star, he was on hand Sunday night to accept two awards for his first foray back: “The Island,” a prison drama by South African playwright Athol Fugard that he imported to Canada with Xhosa Theatrical Productions.

“Four years ago, in an unceremonious way, I was stripped of every award I ever received in theater,” he said, accepting the prize for outstanding production at the Dora Mavor Moore Awards at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre. “Three of these awards were Dora Mavor Moore Awards. This now belongs back where it will be looked at probably every day.”

Though he’s unable to set foot in the United States, the Canadian impresario is reportedly involved in a Broadway revival of “The Dresser,” the 1980 London backstage drama, which--after a Toronto run--is expected to arrive in New York next spring.

QUICK TAKES

Universal Pictures has bought the rights to Richard Alfieri’s “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” the story of a retiree and her hired dance instructor that had its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse last year and is headed for Broadway next season. Arthur Seidelman, who directed those productions, will direct the film; Alfieri will write the screenplay.... Vicente Fernandez will be honored as the 2002 Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences person of the year on Sept. 17 in L.A.... Britney Spears has signed a deal with NASCAR to star in an untitled film set in the world of stock-car racing. The first picture by Spears’ production company, it will be written by James V. Hart (Francis Ford Coppola’s “Dracula”).... Veteran broadcast journalist Bill Moyers will receive the first Kieser Award at the Humanitas Prize luncheon in L.A. on June 25. The award is named for the late priest and producer Ellwood “Bud” Kieser, who founded the Humanitas honors, given to TV and movie writers whose work has promoted human dignity.

Elaine Dutka