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

TV & RADIO

Another New Morning Face: Jane Robelot is back at CBS’ “This Morning” after maternity leave and Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson have taken over the helm of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” but those weren’t the only changes to the morning news arena Monday. “GMA” also installed Antonio Mora as the regular news anchor. Mora--a correspondent for the network’s “World News Tonight” who has been a frequent guest “GMA” anchor over the past year--will also serve as the morning show’s chief correspondent. Before joining ABC news, Mora was co-host of “Good Day L.A.” on Los Angeles’ KTTV-TV.

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Spike’s No ‘PJs’ Fan: Addressing TV reporters assembled in Pasadena Sunday, filmmaker Spike Lee sharply criticized Fox’s new animated Eddie Murphy series, “The PJs,” calling it “very demeaning” toward black people. “I kind of scratch my head [as to] why Eddie Murphy’s doing this because it shows no love at all for black people,” Lee said, speaking via satellite from New York. “It’s really hateful, I think, toward black people.” Lee said he had not discussed the matter with Murphy, adding: “Eddie and I have had philosophical differences throughout the years, but we still get along.” Fox had no response to Lee’s comments, but Shawn Michael Howard, who provides the voice of a former crack addict character named Smokey, said Lee’s opinions “shouldn’t affect whether audiences--black or white--like the show.”

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PBS Reaching Out to Kids: PBS will launch PBS Kids Channel, a new interactive digital channel in July, President Ervin Duggan announced Monday. The 24-hour channel for children from preschool through age 12 is the centerpiece of a $125-million initiative to expand PBS’ efforts to reach children and families. To access the additional channel, however, viewers will need a digital TV set. Meanwhile, KCET-TV is scheduled to go digital this fall, the target date for 16 public television stations encompassing a third of the nation’s population to have digital services.

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Stern Stalker Jailed: A stalker who wrote Howard Stern promising to “absolutely, without a doubt” kill the shock jock has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. The sentence was nearly twice what federal guidelines called for in the case that began when Michael Lance Carvin sent four letters to Stern last spring from Las Vegas. Carvin, 44, was arrested in 1975 for pulling a toy gun on then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. The next year, he was convicted of threatening then-President Ford and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. He served six years of a 10-year federal sentence and was paroled in 1982.

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Format Switch: KKHJ-AM (930), the only Spanish-language all-news radio station in Southern California, switched to Mexican ranchera music at midnight Monday. Under the new format, the station will feature current ballads by such artists as Vincente and Alejandro Fernandez and Ana Gabriel as well as “oldies” from the 1950s and ‘60s.

PERFORMING ARTS

Big Bucks: The billionaire co-founder of one of Orange County’s leading high-tech firms has given $1.3 million to South Coast Repertory, the largest single gift in the Costa Mesa theater company’s 35-year history. Henry T. Nicholas III, president of Irvine’s Broadcom Corp., the nation’s leading maker of cable-modem computer chips, and his wife, Stacey, earmarked their gift for SCR’s proposed expansion; plans call for a new 300-seat theater to replace the current 161-seat Second Stage.

QUICK TAKES

Paramount Home Video will release “The Rugrats Movie” in stores on March 30. . . . Jon Stewart has brought good news--and ratings--to cable’s Comedy Central. In his first week hosting “The Daily Show” last week, the show averaged 595,000 viewers a night, the highest-rated week in the series’ history.