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

ART

Picasso Slashed: Dutch police arrested an escaped psychiatric patient Sunday after he allegedly slashed a Picasso painting, “Woman Nude Before Garden,” in Amsterdam’s Dutch Stedelijk Museum. At the time of the attack, 2,500 visitors were in the gallery. The painting--valued at $5 million to $7.5 million--was severely damaged, with a large, ragged hole cut through the middle of the canvas. Officials said restoration experts would try their best to repair the work. The alleged assailant, identified only as Paul G., 41, had been detained at a clinic for the mentally ill since trying to hijack a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight with a toy gun in 1978. Officials said Paul G.--who, after leaving the museum, boasted of his crime at the headquarters of a Dutch newspaper, where he was arrested--is also a top suspect in a 1990 incident at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum in which acid was thrown on Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch.” Meanwhile, Sunday’s wasn’t the first act of vandalism at the Stedelijk: In separate 1997 incidents, a Barnett Newman work was slashed and a Kazimir Malevich painting was painted with a green dollar sign; both works were repaired.

TV & MOVIES

Early Daytime Emmys: As a prelude to Friday’s 26th annual Daytime Emmy Awards airing on CBS, winners in the creative arts categories were announced by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences over the weekend, with NBC and PBS tied with six Emmys apiece in categories that included costume design, makeup, hairstyling and editing. ABC took home five Emmys, CBS had four and HBO, Showtime and the WB garnered three each.

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Springer’s Council Hearing: Jerry Springer will appear before the Chicago City Council on June 4 at a meeting called to determine whether the fistfights and chair throwing on Springer’s talk show are real or staged. Alderman Edward Burke, a former policeman and chairman of the council’s finance committee who called for Springer’s appearance before the council’s police and fire committee, says that if the violence is genuine, the off-duty Chicago police who provide the show’s security should enforce the law, cuff the guests and haul them off to jail. And if it’s staged, Burke has suggested that “The Jerry Springer Show” should be required to obtain a city entertainment license. Springer agreed to eliminate the fighting on his show after numerous protests last year, but the brawls resumed after the program’s ratings suffered.

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In the Navy: Filmmaker Spike Lee has signed on to make six recruiting commercials for the U.S. Navy. In an effort that the military hopes will “attract a younger audience” of potential recruits, Lee is using hand-held cameras to make documentary-style spots on Navy SEALs, sailors in a rock band, exotic travel opportunities and other service-related topics. “Spike can give us a different edge,” said a Navy official, noting that the Navy fell 7,000 recruits short of its goal in 1998. The first ad will debut June 4 in theaters--as a preview to the new “Star Wars” film--before being shown on television.

LEGAL FILE

Drug Charges: “NewsRadio” actor Andy Dick will appear in court next Tuesday to face charges of drug possession and driving under the influence of drugs after an incident in which police said he drove a car into a utility pole in Hollywood, then tried to run away. Police said Dick, 33, appeared to be intoxicated when his car struck a utility pole about 10:45 a.m. Sunday. The actor allegedly tried to run, but a witness chased him and detained him until police arrived. A policewoman said cocaine and marijuana were found in his car.

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Double Trouble: After being arrested on assault and harassment charges in New York, top-selling rapper DMX learned he was wanted in Colorado in connection with a stabbing. DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was arrested Thursday on charges of attacking a man with whom he exchanged words in Yonkers. While he was jailed after that arrest, police discovered Simmons, 28, was wanted in Denver for an April 28 stabbing of a man during a gang attack. His attorney said that Simmons had been unaware of the Denver warrant and added that the victim was not claiming that Simmons had stabbed him. “I have no reason to run,” said Simmons, who was ordered to report to Denver authorities within a week. DMX’s latest album, “Flesh of My Flesh Blood of My Blood,” has sold more than a million copies.

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‘Highlander’ Stalker Arrested: Adrian Paul, star of the syndicated program “Highlander, the Series,” is breathing more easily now that police have arrested an alleged stalker accused of telephoning him dozens of times a day, calling him “Bunny Nose” and threatening to “hurt you in ways you’d wish to God that you didn’t have to be hurt.” Cheryl Roberts, 38, was arrested Friday morning at her Connecticut home and will undergo a psychiatric review to determine if she is competent to stand trial.

QUICK TAKES

“Star Wars” composer John Williams will receive the Richard Kirk Award for outstanding career achievement on Wednesday from the performing rights organization BMI, during the group’s annual film and television awards at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. . . . More than 23 million viewers tuned in to the first night of CBS’ miniseries “Joan of Arc,” the network’s best Sunday performance since December. NBC was competitive with the conclusion of “Atomic Train,” at 16.6 million viewers, and 14 million people watched Diana Ross in the ABC movie “Double Platinum.” With “The X-Files” season finale thrown in, the four major networks totaled nearly 70 million viewers at 9 p.m., a marked increase over their usual Sunday average. . . . Nirvana fans can read or listen to snippets of a “lost” 1990 interview with the late Kurt Cobain beginning today on the online music retailer https://www.CDNOW.com.