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

TELEVISION

Viewers Want to Be Millionaires: ABC’s unusual tactic of airing the new game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” for 14 consecutive nights is paying off for the network, with the program having won its time period in each of its first three nights. Total viewership of the program has grown nightly--from 10 million on Monday to 10.5 million on Tuesday to 11.5 million on Wednesday, when the program was TV’s most watched show of the night. Though there’s no definite order for additional episodes yet, network discussions have centered on bringing back the Regis Philbin-hosted program for November sweeps in the same 14-consecutive-night format.

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White World for Gays, Too: Although the recent media furor over a lack of diversity on the new fall TV schedule has focused on the near-absence of ethnic minorities, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation isn’t happy with the representation of gays either. In its latest “TV Scoreboard” analyzing the coming fall season, the watchdog group calls the programming “barely realistic in the portrayals of lesbian and gay characters” and concludes that “with few exceptions, the [gay] community portrayed in prime time is overwhelmingly white men who are gay-in-name only.” The scoreboard, posted on GLAAD’s Web site (https://www.glaad.org), lists a total of 27 gay roles and 1 transgender role on the broadcast and cable networks--out of a total of 540 lead or supporting characters. Among the networks, GLAAD found the most gay characters on NBC (eight), followed by ABC (six) and Fox (five). Meanwhile, CBS and WB have three gay characters each, Showtime has two, HBO has one, and UPN network’s schedule offers no such characters, GLAAD says. . . . Meanwhile, in the latest instance of networks scrambling to cast more minorities in the wake of criticism from the media and the NAACP, NBC has signed a holding deal with comic David Alan Grier (“In Living Color”) in the hopes of developing a comedy for him for the 2000-2001 season.

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Kudos: “The Cosby Show,” which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1992, will receive the lifetime achievement award at the first Family Program Awards, to be presented Sept. 9. The awards are organized by the Family Friendly Programming Forum, a group of 30 major advertisers established to encourage more family-friendly prime-time fare. In announcing the award, Procter & Gamble executive Robert L. Wehling called “The Cosby Show” the “gold standard” among TV programs. . . . CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Fox’s “That ‘70s Show,” WB’s “For Your Love” and two episodes of UPN’s “Moesha” were nominated Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Advocates for Youth for their “outstanding portrayals of family planning, sexuality and reproductive health.” Drama nominees for the 15th annual Shine Awards were CBS’ “Chicago Hope,” NBC’s “ER,” Lifetime’s “Any Day Now” and WB’s “7th Heaven” and “Felicity.” Winners will be announced Oct. 26.

MOVIES

Millennium’s Power Duo: President Clinton has agreed to narrate a 17-minute Steven Spielberg film about the new millennium, a DreamWorks spokesperson said Thursday. The film is being prepared for Quincy Jones’ New Year’s Eve gala in Washington. So far, there are no confirmed plans to release the millennium film commercially.

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Classic Mexican Cinema: Mexican cinema buffs can view some of that country’s most noted classic films at the “Modern Mexican Art and Culture” series beginning next Friday at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana. The series begins with the 1943 drama “Flor Silvestre (Wildflower),” directed by Emilio “El Indio” Fernandez and starring legendary actress Dolores Del Rio and Pedro Armendariz. On Sept. 12, the 1946 film “Enamorada (A Woman in Love),” also directed by Fernandez and starring del Rio, will be screened. The last feature, on Sept. 18, is “Macario” (1959), written by B. Traven, and based on his novel “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” All three movies were filmed by Mexico’s greatest cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa, who received an Oscar nomination for John Huston’s “Night of the Iguana.” Each 2 p.m. screening will be followed by a discussion with Michael Donnelly, founder of Shadowfax Film Co., which distributes Mexican films in the United States. Donnelly, who grew up in Mexico City, prepared the English subtitles for Wim Wenders’ recent hit documentary “The Buena Vista Social Club.”

QUICK TAKES

Singer Ricky Martin has signed a deal with Pepsi-Cola North America to represent the company in print, TV and radio ads aimed at the Latino market. The first U.S. TV commercial is expected to premiere in the fall. Pepsi is a main sponsor of Martin’s upcoming North American concert tour. . . . Former “Diff’rent Strokes” star Gary Coleman, most recently in the news for punching a female autograph-seeker, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection Wednesday in Los Angeles. . . . Robert Butler, a helicopter pilot charged with flying too low over Barbra Streisand and James Brolin’s Malibu wedding last summer, pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace Wednesday and was fined $500, grounded for 30 days and placed on two years’ probation. . . . Due to conflicting witness accounts, Miami Beach prosecutors have dropped an aggravated battery charge against 2 Live Crew rapper Luther Campbell, who was arrested last month for allegedly hitting a man with a whiskey bottle during a nightclub altercation. . . . “End of the Tale,” a story that Garrison Keillor wrote 15 years ago for New Yorker magazine about the tracking of the country’s last remaining smokers after the habit is outlawed by constitutional amendment, will be turned into a 15-minute film. It’s to be shot in Minnesota next spring by co-producer Irv Letofsky.