Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

MOVIES

Kidd’s Oscar: Five-time Tony-winning choreographer Michael Kidd will receive an honorary Oscar “in recognition of his services to the art of the dance in the art of the screen” during the 69th Academy Awards on March 24. Kidd’s career spans four decades, beginning with “Where’s Charley?” in 1952 and including the classics “Guys and Dolls,” “The Band Wagon,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “Hello, Dolly!” Previous honorary Oscar winners include Kirk Douglas, Federico Fellini and Sophia Loren.

Catching Up With Sundance: For those unable to attend the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, two local Starbucks coffee houses (at the Beverly Connection and at 4207 Riverside Drive in Burbank) are providing a partial live feed from the festival on TV screens at the restaurants. Included in the coverage, which continues until Jan. 26, will be Sundance Award Night on Jan. 25. On cable’s Sundance Channel, meanwhile, festival coverage includes daily updates at 6 p.m. (through Jan. 23), live coverage of the awards ceremony on Jan. 25 and a festival wrap-up on Jan. 26. Several previous Sundance winners also will be shown on the cable channel between Jan. 23 and 26, including “Picture Bride” (1995), “Crumb” (1995) and “Something Within Me” (1993).

ART

MOMA Picks Architects: The Museum of Modern Art in New York has selected 10 architectural firms to compete for the commission to design its expansion. Noticeably absent are such big names as Frank Gehry and Richard Meier, both of whom already are undertaking massive projects here: the Disney Concert Hall downtown and the Getty complex in Brentwood, respectively. Among those selected by MOMA are two architects from the Netherlands, Wiel Arets and Rem Koolhass; two from Japan, Toyo Ito and Yoshio Taniguchi; the Swiss team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre De Meuron, and France’s Dominique Perault. The others are based in New York: Steven Holl, Bernard Tschumi, Rafael Vinoly and the partnership of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. In February, MOMA acquired the Dorset Hotel, which borders the museum’s existing sculpture garden. But rather than simply add an adjacent building, the architects have been encouraged to reconfigure the entire museum. Preliminary design proposals are to be submitted within two months and all 10 plans will be exhibited at the museum. MOMA hopes to award the commission by year’s end. A spokeswoman said there is no estimated budget yet for the project because it will be determined partially by the scope of plans submitted.

TELEVISION

‘Today’ Still Sunny: Bryant Gumbel’s departure doesn’t seem to be hurting NBC News’ “Today” show. The program scored its second-highest ratings ever last week when an average 23% of viewing homes tuned in to see Katie Couric with her new anchor partner, Matt Lauer. By comparison, ABC News’ “Good Morning America” drew a 17% audience share for the week while CBS News’ “This Morning” attracted 10%. “Today,” which posted its best-ever ratings during the same week in 1988, now has won the morning news race for 57 straight weeks.

PBS for Kids: The Public Broadcasting Service will provide another outlet for educational children’s material with PBS for Kids, a new line of home videos that will debut in stores Feb. 25 and will be based on the network’s programming. First out will be “Adventures From the Book of Virtues,” six tapes of the animated program based on William J. Bennett’s best-selling anthology. Meanwhile, PBS is joining with WebTV Networks Inc. to showcase its World Wide Web offerings on TV, including new children’s fare. For instance, PBS said, kids whose families subscribe to WebTV will be able to watch a PBS program such as “Arthur” and then go to the show’s WebTV site for related educational activities. The announcements follow a new Roper Youth Report commissioned by the Corp. for Public Broadcasting indicating that kids who watch PBS children’s programs are more likely to read books and use a computer.

JAZZ

Anita O’Day Hospitalized: Anita O’Day, one of the last of the great big-band singers, is seriously ill in a Hollywood hospital. She was admitted Dec. 18 for surgery to repair multiple fractures of her arm. Although the surgery was successful, O’Day, 77, subsequently developed pneumonia and septicemia. According to her press representative, O’Day is on a respirator and her condition is “touch and go.” Last week, O’Day was awarded an American Jazz Masters award by the National Endowment for the Arts.

QUICK TAKES

Joni Mitchell and Phil Spector were among those named Thursday to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York. Others selected by the National Academy of Popular Music to be inducted June 10 are Harlan Howard (“I Fall to Pieces”), Ernesto Lecuona (“Malaguena”) and Jimmy Kennedy (“Harbor Lights”). . . . “Batman and Robin” star George Clooney gave Warner Bros. a scare this week when he sprained his ankle playing basketball during a break from filming his NBC series “ER.” Fears of a costly filming delay on the “Batman” set were allayed when doctors gave Clooney the OK to go back to work. He was, however, told to stay away from the hoops.