‘COSBY,’ ‘PURPLE’ TOP NAACP NOMINEES

“The Color Purple,” Steven Spielberg’s film about the spiritual growth of a rural black woman, and NBC’s top-rated “The Cosby Show” are the most heavily honored contenders for the 19th annual NAACP Image Awards, whose nominees were announced Thursday.

“Cosby” topped the list with eight nominations--for best comedy series episode, for actors Roscoe Lee Browne and Earle Hyman in guest roles, for series regulars Phylicia Rashad and, in the youth actor category, Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pulliam and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

“The Color Purple” garnered six nominations, for best motion picture and for actresses Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Desereta Jackson and Akosua Busia, the latter three in the supporting category.

Winfrey and Spielberg both turned up elsewhere on the nominee list, she for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” nominated as best news/information TV series, and he for two episodes of his NBC series, “Amazing Stories.”

NBC dominated in the TV category, with its actors or shows bringing in 29 nominations against ABC’s six and CBS’ four.

The Image Awards were launched in 1968 by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to recognize positive images of blacks in the entertainment industry.

In other areas, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Patti LaBelle were nominated, among others, as best female recording artists; El DeBarge, Al Jarreau, Billy Ocean, Jeffrey Osborne, Lionel Richie and Stevie Wonder were the male nominees.

Equity plays nominated were “Gospel at Colonus,” “Boseman and Lena,” “Fool for Love” and “Tap Dance Kid.”

Special awards go to South African activist Winnie Mandela, human rights leader Mother Clara Hale, Rev. Allan Boesak of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Mary Hatwood Futrell of the National Education Assn., Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, Guy H. Dobbs of Medialink International, and, posthumously, to astronaut Ronald E. McNair, a victim of the Challenger space shuttle explosion.

Artists to be inducted into the Image Awards Hall of Fame are Arthur Mitchell of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, musician John Coltrane, actresses Beah Richards and Butterfly McQueen, and director Oscar Micheaux.

Dionne Warwick was named entertainer of the year.