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

ENTERTAINMENT

Discounts Online: Several Southland venues will offer discounted tickets through a pilot program being introduced today by Ticketmaster Online, the Internet service of the ticketing giant. Offered only on the day of the event, tickets will usually be discounted to half price and will be available through the Ticketmaster Web site at https://www.ticketmaster.com Participants in the program include the Universal Amphitheatre, the Greek Theatre, the Pantages Theatre, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Long Beach Terrace Theatre and the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Ticketmaster plans to expand the service locally and offer it nationwide before the end of the year.

POP-ROCK

King Launching Label: Police beating victim Rodney King is using part of his $3.8-million civil judgment to launch a rap record label. King, whose 1991 videotaped beating was broadcast worldwide, is promoting his Straight Alta-Pazz Recording Co. and little-known rap group Stranded. The 32-year-old fledgling rap producer is looking for a distributor for the group’s debut album, “California Grindin’.” “We want to give a real positive boost to the rap market,” said King, who met Stranded rappers Papoose and Buzz while performing community service. “I believe there are only two cuss words in the entire album.”

Still the Tops: Despite the death from liver cancer last Friday of founding member Lawrence Payton, the surviving members of the Four Tops aren’t calling it quits. They’re not even going to skip their next show Friday in Omaha, Neb. Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs said that Payton will be sorely missed because “he was responsible for the harmony” but that the group would continue to perform as a trio, renamed the Tops, rather than replace Payton. The group, which had begun performing without Payton when his illness worsened recently, helped define the Motown sound with such hits as “I’ll Be There” and “Baby I Need Your Loving.”

O’Connor Fires Back: Sinead O’Connor challenged a Jewish extremist to ponder the meaning of peace in response to his boasts that he had scared the Irish singer into canceling a concert in Jerusalem last Saturday. O’Connor canceled the show, which was scheduled to promote the city as a capital for both Israelis and Palestinians, after British and Irish embassies in Tel Aviv received death threats against her last week. Ben Gvir said in a radio interview that he and his supporters prompted O’Connor to drop out but stopped short of saying he made the threats. “He was gloating about it,” O’Connor told the Associated Press. “It is very appalling and it goes against all religious beliefs.”

TELEVISION

News Director at KNBC: KNBC-TV Channel 4 on Monday named Nancy Bauer-Gonzales as the station’s new news director and vice president of news. Bauer-Gonzales, who had been KNBC’s assistant news director, will replace Bill Lord, who recently announced his departure from the station to return to KIRO-TV in Seattle. She will assume her new position on Saturday and report directly to Carole Black, KNBC president and general manager. Bauer-Gonzales joined the station in 1989 as executive producer of the Channel 4 News.

Casting About: Some popular series will be getting new faces next season. Alex Kingston, who starred in the recent PBS miniseries “Moll Flanders,” joins NBC’s “ER” in the fall as a surgeon. Two actors whose series were recently canceled will move into “Melrose Place”; Jamie Luner (“Savannah”) and Linden Ashby (“Spy Game”) will play “a recently divorced couple who will stir things up for many of the residents,” according to Fox.

PEOPLE

Disney Hall CEO Steps Down: Harry Hufford, a Bear Stearns & Co. investment executive and former Los Angeles County chief administrator, will step down as chief executive of downtown’s Walt Disney Concert Hall project effective next Monday, the project’s board of directors announced Monday. Hufford, 65, took over Disney Hall leadership in 1995 amid threats from L.A. County to default on the project, a planned new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, because of unmet construction deadlines. In recent months, fund-raising for the hall, which Disney Hall officials now estimate to cost $220 million, has been led by ad hoc chairman Eli Broad, chief executive of SunAmerica Inc.; Mayor Richard Riordan; and Music Center chair Andrea Van de Kamp, who will continue in that capacity. Personal and corporate gift announcements since December total $64.25 million, reducing the project’s funding gap to about $40 million. (See commentary on F1.)

THEATER

‘Ragtime’ Set Accident: A piece of the set fell onto the stage soon after the Friday night performance of “Ragtime” began at the Shubert Theatre, injuring two actors and stopping the show for about half an hour. A spokesman said the injuries were minor; one of the actors returned to the show the next day; the other is expected to return tonight.

QUICK TAKES

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” episode in which the newsroom deals with the death of Chuckles the Clown has been voted the best TV episode of all time by cable network TV Land and TV Guide. The nostalgia channel will air a weeklong retrospective of TV’s 100 best episodes beginning Monday. . . . The Sci-Fi Channel has committed to 22 new episodes of “Sliders” and has acquired the exclusive rights to all 48 previously produced hours of the science-fiction/adventure series. . . . Actor Robert De Niro, 53, and Grace Hightower, 42, were married June 17 in New York, De Niro’s publicist said Monday. . . . Former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Luke Perry and his wife, Minnie, are first-time parents after the June 15 birth of Jack Perry, who entered the world weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces, the actor’s publicist said Monday. . . . Rod Steiger has filed for divorce from his wife, Paula, whom he married in 1986. . . . John McLaughlin, 70-year-old host of “The McLaughlin Group,” married 36-year-old Cristina Vidal Sunday.