TELEVISION’Trek’s’ New Star: The latest round of...

TELEVISION

‘Trek’s’ New Star: The latest round of musical captain’s chairs for the upcoming TV series “Star Trek: Voyager” seems to have finally been settled. Actress Kate Mulgrew will become the first female captain of a Federation Starship in the latest “Star Trek” spinoff, which begins airing in January on the new United Paramount network. Genevieve Bujold had been named captain but resigned after several days of filming when she learned how arduous the schedule would be. Mulgrew has appeared in many TV movies and series, including roles in two short-lived NBC shows, “Kate Loves a Mystery” and “Man of the People,” and also on the ABC soap “Ryan’s Hope.” In her new role, she will be charged with leading a lost U.S.S. Voyager back into Federation territory.

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Ratings Watch: “All-American Girl,” the new ABC sitcom with comic Margaret Cho, got off to a good start Wednesday. A preview of the show attracted 27% of the viewing audience at 9:30 p.m., when it followed a repeat of “Home Improvement.” CBS, meanwhile, aired back-to-back episodes of its new comedy “The Boys Are Back” from 8 to 9 that night, with the second finishing behind the season premiere of ABC’s “Thunder Alley” and the second half of “Beverly Hills, 90210” on Fox. Next week, “All-American Girl” moves to the 8:30 p.m. slot, following “Thunder Alley.”

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Presidential Gala: Whoopi Goldberg will return as host of “A Gala for the President at Ford’s Theatre,” an ABC special to be taped in Washington Oct. 30 for telecast in December. Goldberg will entertain President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton with help from Paula Poundstone, Luther Vandross, Celine Dion and Paul Reiser. Goldberg emceed the event last year.

MOVIES

Where’s ‘Pat’?Officials at Walt Disney Studios apparently have decided that “It’s Pat,” starring Julia Sweeney as the gender-neutral character she played on TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” may not be ready for widespread release. The film had been scheduled to open in Los Angeles this weekend, but that plan was scrapped. Officials now say the movie probably will open on “college campuses” and other smaller venues. Disney had test-marketed the film in Seattle, Spokane and Houston, but audiences were evidently less than thrilled. Says a source: “If it makes sense to play L.A., we’ll play L.A. Right now, when it opens is under evaluation.”

LEGAL FILE

Guilty Plea: Tupac Shakur may face up to 90 days in jail and a $100 fine after pleading guilty in Lansing, Mich., to charges he tried to hit another rapper with a baseball bat. The incident prompted a fight during an April, 1993 concert at Michigan State University. Shakur is to be sentenced Oct. 26; he had been charged with felonious assault but that was reduced to a misdemeanor.

THE ARTS

Menotti Fired: Italian opera composer Gian Carlo Menotti, founder of the renowned Spoleto performing arts festival, was fired Friday as artistic director of the Rome opera. Giorgio Vidusso, the opera’s superintendent, said artistic differences led him to release Menotti, 83, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who launched the Spoleto festival in central Italy in 1958. Menotti, who has a history of battling superiors for artistic control, last year broke with the U.S. version of the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina after arguing that corporate sponsors had too much control over it.

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Step by Step: Two visiting ballet companies are seeking local talent. The American Ballet Theatre is looking for men, women and children to fill non-dancing roles in its production of “Manon,” which will be presented at the Orange County Performing Arts Center starting Tuesday. Fifty extras will be chosen from the audition to be held at the center Sunday at 6 p.m. For information regarding the auditions, call (714) 556-2122, Ext. 557. . . . And next Saturday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Joffrey Ballet will have children’s auditions for its December production of “The Nutcracker.” Information: (714) 642-0624.

PEOPLE WATCH

Stamp of Approval: Blues and sax man Big Jay McNeely will help unveil commemorative stamps honoring Muddy Waters and seven other jazz and blues artists during a first-day-of-issue ceremony today at the House of Blues in West Hollywood. Stamps honoring Robert Johnson, “Ma” Rainey, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Rushing, Billie Holiday, Mildred Bailey and Bessie Smith will also be presented. The event begins at noon.

QUICK TAKES

The contract of ABC Entertainment president Ted Harbert has been renewed for four years. . . . A 1957 recording of John Lennon singing with his first, pre-Beatles, band has sold for $122,770 at Sotheby’s in London. It was purchased by EMI, the Beatles’ original recording company . . . A tutu worn by the late prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn was sold at a London auction Friday to a collector of ballet memorabilia for $1,440. Fonteyn, who died in Panama City in 1991, wore it in a London Covent Garden production of “Sleeping Beauty.”