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

TELEVISION

Gumbel Says Goodbye to His Morning Stint

After saying his goodbyes on CBS’ “The Early Show” this morning, host Bryant Gumbel will turn up on ABC’s “20/20” tonight to reflect on his 27-year broadcasting career.

Does Gumbel feel responsible for the lack of success of the morning show he took over in 1999, anchor Barbara Walters asks? “Sure I do,” he says. “I’ve got terrible Catholic guilt about everything!” Though his much-publicized divorce may have soured some of the female viewership, he says the show’s poor ratings weren’t a factor in his decision to hang up his hat.

“It is probably harder to walk away from failure--and I guess some people would argue this was,” he said. “But in this instance, [leaving was] just the right thing to do. You just feel it in your gut.”

Gumbel will continue hosting “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” on HBO, but he says he’ll never work five days a week again. And what of his legacy as the first African American to host a network morning show?

“I am not one of those guys who got into this to be either the richest or the most famous or the most powerful,” he tells Walters. “I got into this to satisfy myself and to try to do as thorough and professional a job that my dad would be proud of.”

America Is Weak Link, Robinson Says

Anne Robinson, the acerbic host of NBC’s “The Weakest Link,” didn’t pull her punches in an interview with the London newspaper the Mirror. Spurred by the cancellation of the show, she took potshots at the intellect of Americans.

“On one U.S. show, I asked a young soap star how many minutes there were in a half hour,” she said. “And she said ’60.’”

And the country’s chief executive, Robinson maintains, is only marginally better. She says she saw George W. Bush at a benefit concert waving at Stevie Wonder--apparently unaware that the blind singer couldn’t see him. NBC has bought her new TV venture, “Test the Nation,” but Robinson has doubts it will fly. “The real test will be whether Americans can concentrate for an hour,” she quips.

POP/ROCK

The Boss Sidesteps N.J. Senatorial Bid

Bruce Springsteen decided he wasn’t born to run for political office after all.

Doug Friedline, a consultant who helped professional wrestler Jesse Ventura win the Minnesota governor’s race in 1998, had hoped to recruit Springsteen to run as an independent in New Jersey’s November’s U.S. Senate race. The Boss would have faced off against incumbent Sen. Robert Torricelli, a Democrat, and the Republican who wins the June 4 primary.

Friedline, who also served as campaign manager for last year’s unsuccessful New Jersey gubernatorial bid of then-state Sen. Bill Schluter, said volunteers from that campaign thought of drafting Springsteen because the current contest is boring. A Springsteen spokeswoman, however, says her client has no ambition to hold office. In a statement sent to the Asbury Park Press, the 52-year-old singer paraphrased a rebuff by Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman to the GOP convention of 1884: “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.”

The Soundtrack of the Osbournes’ Lives

What are the favorite songs of America’s favorite dysfunctional family? How about John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me,” the Cars’ “Drive” and System of a Down’s version of Black Sabbath’s “Snowblind”?

Those are among the tracks that make up “The Osbournes Family Album,” a companion CD to the hit MTV series “The Osbournes” that’s due in stores June 11 on Epic Records.

In addition to old tracks selected by Ozzy Osbourne, wife Sharon and the kids, the album includes a version of Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” by daughter Kelly Osbourne (it’s been released as a single) and a rendition of the Ozzy standby “Crazy Train” by a family neighbor, Pat Boone.

Ozzy’s original 1981 version is also in the package, one of three tracks by the family patriarch.

THE ARTS

Southwest-Pechangas Pact Up for a Vote

The Southwest Museum of Los Angeles and the Pechanga Indians of Temecula this weekend hope to seal a long-term pact to send a sizable chunk of the Southwest collection to the tribe on loan.

The Pechangas plan to build a new museum for the artifacts and make annual payments to stabilize the Southwest Museum’s long-shaky finances.

The deal is dependent on today’s vote by the Southwest Museum’s 26 trustees and a Sunday vote by the Pechanga Reservation’s roughly 800 enrolled adult members. If approved by both groups, the plan would marry the Pechangas’ wealth, accumulated since the tribe began casino operations in 1995, with the collection of the Southwest Museum, which holds more than 350,000 pots, textiles, dolls and other artifacts.

The Southwest Museum, founded in 1907, would remain open at its longtime hillside home on Mount Washington. Museum and tribal officials declined to disclose details on the contract until votes were completed.

QUICK TAKES

Despite rumors that he might sign with ABC and cover NBA basketball games on the network, Bob Costas has re-upped with NBC, Variety reports.... Eminem’s Anger Management Tour, which also features Papa Roach, Ludacris, Xzibit and the X-Ecutioners, starts July 18 in Buffalo, N.Y., and includes stops Aug. 15 at Coors Amphitheatre in Chula Vista and Aug. 16 at Blockbuster Pavilion in Devore. No Los Angeles dates have been announced.... Jackie Chan (“Rush Hour”), director Michael Bay (“Pearl Harbor”) and Buddy Van Horn, who does stunts for Clint Eastwood, are being honored by the World Stunt Awards Foundation in an event telecast by ABC on May 31.