TV/RADIOEarly Birds Get the Stern: About 60...

TV/RADIO

Early Birds Get the Stern: About 60 eager Howard Stern fans were already camped outside of Westwood’s Borders Books by midafternoon Thursday in anticipation of the shock jock’s appearance there at noon today to sign copies of his new book, “Miss America.” A store spokeswoman noted that three of those campers had been there since 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. She described the crowd as mostly males (although seven women were counted), in their 20s and 30s, “the type you’d expect to see at a rock concert.”

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L.A. to Get ‘Politically Incorrect’: Comedian Bill Maher is moving his “Politically Incorrect” show to Los Angeles. The Comedy Central program, now produced at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, will shift coasts in early February. ABC has been talking to Maher about hosting a post-”Nightline” show, and insiders believe the new home base could hasten that deal by boosting his national exposure. However, Maher’s Comedy Central contract binds him to the cable network through 1996, so a switch to ABC would have to come sometime after that.

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The Cos on CBS?: CBS is expected to announce today a major deal with Bill Cosby for a new series on the network. Carsey-Warner Productions, producers of Cosby’s former hit series on NBC, are said to be involved. Cosby, who has been in talks with several networks, attended the New York press conference earlier this week where Westinghouse announced CBS’ new management.

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UPN Programs Wednesdays: The United Paramount Network will expand to three nights a week of prime-time programming, starting March 6 with the “Blockbuster Entertainment Awards” from 8 to 10 p.m. Then on March 13 the network premieres two Wednesday night hourlong dramas in the same time slot. “The Sentinel,” starring Richard Burgi (“One West Waikiki”) as a police detective who developed heightened sensory powers after surviving a helicopter crash, will air at 8 p.m.; at 9 p.m. will be “Swift Justice,” a new drama from “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf that focuses on the crime-solving escapades of an ex-New York City cop played by James McCaffrey.

MOVIES

Early ‘Nixon’ Backlash: Oliver Stone’s “Nixon,” starring Anthony Hopkins as the former President, doesn’t open until Dec. 20, but it’s already meeting criticism. Speaking on Wednesday night’s “Late Late Show With Tom Snyder,” former Nixon aide John Ehrlichman called the upcoming movie “not history . . . not fact” and “not even a dramatization of history. It’s made-up stuff, and it’s very cruel.” Ehrlichman said he’s received copies of the film’s script and that it bears little resemblance to the actual events he lived through during Nixon’s White House years.

WORLD AIDS DAY

Queen, Highways Take Part: British rock group Queen will honor its singer, Freddie Mercury, who died of complications of AIDS in 1991, by donating all royalties from today’s worldwide sales of the new Queen album, “Made in Heaven,” to the Phoenix Mercury Trust, an AIDS charity set up in Mercury’s name. The album includes material recorded in the last few months of Mercury’s life. The donation marks today’s observance of World AIDS Day and Day Without Art. . . . Among other Day Without Art events today, State Assemblywoman and former actress Sheila James Kuehl is among several performers who will read from actor Michael Kearns’ new book, “T-Cells & Sympathy,” at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. The 8:30 p.m. show benefits Highways Harold Nichols Memorial Fund for Artists With HIV/AIDS. Tickets are $10.

JAZZ

Slam Dunk Jazz: Two American classics, jazz and basketball, are coming together to provide much-needed support for musical training in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Jazz Sports LA, an innovative music education program chaired by former Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and sponsored by the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Basketball Assn. and Nissan Motor Corp., was introduced Wednesday night at the Forum. With supporters including NEA Chair Jane Alexander looking on, bands from Locke and Hamilton high schools, aided by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, performed before the Laker-Suns game, and will appear at selected Laker contests throughout the 1995-96 season.

QUICK TAKES

The Dec. 12-17 “Nutcracker” engagement at the Pantages Theatre by the Kirov Academy of Washington, D.C., and guest dancers of the Kirov Ballet has been canceled without explanation. Refunds can be obtained at the point of purchase. . . . “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter has signed an exclusive five-year deal with 20th Century Fox Television to create, develop and produce both TV series and feature films for the studio. . . . Robert Redford will be honored for “fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession” when he receives the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award Feb. 24, during the Second Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards telecast on NBC. . . . Today is the deadline for filmmakers to submit their movies in order to qualify for 1995 Oscar consideration.