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

TELEVISION

World’s First Former Intern Interview?: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is pursuing Monica Lewinsky for a possible TV and book deal. A spokesman confirmed Thursday that there have been discussions with her representatives, but would not comment on one report that put the talking figure in the $3-million range. A source close to the former White House intern declined comment on the News Corp. specifics but said that her representatives are considering a variety of offers from television and print outlets anxious for the first public word from Lewinsky about her relationship with President Clinton.

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‘Charmed’ Debut: The fates conspired to help “Charmed,” a new WB network drama about three witches, get off to a flying start Wednesday. With Fox’s “Party of Five” preempted by a baseball game that was then pushed back by a rain delay, the new Shannen Doherty series scored the WB’s biggest premiere audience ever (eclipsing last week’s “Felicity”), with 7.7 million viewers nationally. The series also finished first in its time slot locally on KTLA. Meanwhile, “Dawson’s Creek” also opened its second season in fine fashion without the competition--Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210”--helping the 4-year-old WB network to its most-watched night ever. By contrast, ABC’s new sitcom “The Secret Lives of Men” dropped sharply compared both to its premiere and its lead-in, “The Drew Carey Show.”

THE ARTS

Painting a New Cultural Study: Artist LeRoy Neiman has donated $1 million to UCLA to establish the LeRoy Neiman Center for the Study of American Society and Culture, a research and graduate training unit that will focus on “the issues that shape and change America.” The center, which will study areas including the arts, politics, economics and religion, will be part of UCLA’s Department of Sociology. Neiman, whose paintings reflect what he calls “purchased pleasures”--sports, entertainment and play--says the donation stems from his “fascination with the interplay between social behavior, working people and leisure life.”

POP/ROCK

Early Elvis: The first known film footage of Elvis Presley performing on stage, shot at a recreational area just outside of Houston on Aug. 7, 1955, will be sent to video stores Oct. 20 by Tapeworm Video Distributors. Fans will only be able to see Presley gyrate, not hear him sing, since the event was filmed without sound. Shot by Jim and Lois Robertson of Houston, it shows a 20-year-old Presley performing before about 25 people.

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It’s Been a Year: Cable’s VH1 will mark the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 12, 1997, solo plane crash that killed singer John Denver by airing the new special “John Denver: Behind the Music”’ on Sunday at 9 p.m. Meanwhile, the groups California Friends of John Denver and Windstar California will sponsor public events remembering the singer on both Sunday and Monday in Pacific Grove, Calif., near the ocean site of Denver’s crash (Information: [310] 399-1000). The groups have also applied for permission to erect a commemorative bench near a cypress tree overlooking the crash site. Denver, who was also known for his environmental and humanitarian acts, was 53 when he died.

QUICK TAKES

Oscar-winner Marlon Brando will make a rare foray into television to star in “Behind the Mask,” a CBS TV movie about an overworked doctor who forms a father-son bond with a mentally disabled patient. No air date is set. . . . Fox’s Sunday night series “That ‘70s Show” has become the year’s first new series to get a full season pickup. . . . KFI-AM (640) morning-drive man Bill Handel and the afternoon-drive team of John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou will debate “Should Clinton Be Impeached?” at the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills today from 5-7 p.m. The debate will air live on the “John & Ken” show. . . . Al Pacino, Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Tony Curtis and master of ceremonies Larry King will be among those on the dais when the Friars Club of California gives Playboy founder Hugh Hefner its annual Lifetime Achievement Award during ceremonies at the Century Plaza Hotel tonight. . . . Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Robert Wuhl and Bobcat Goldthwaite will be among those joining center square Whoopi Goldberg for a “Comic Relief”-themed week of “Hollywood Squares” slated to air Nov. 16-20. Goldberg expects the programs to raise about $100,000 for the homeless charity.