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

TELEVISION

Coming Up Roses: KTLA-TV Channel 5 boosted its own record from last year by attracting a whopping 3.53 million viewing households in the L.A. area to its all-day Rose Parade coverage Wednesday, including nearly 1.4 million homes (59% of the viewing audience) that turned in to the live broadcast at 8 a.m. That beat the pants off of competitors KCBS-TV Channel 2, KNBC-TV Channel 4 and KABC-TV Channel 7, which between them drew only about 370,680 viewing homes for their live parade coverage. KTLA--which also aired pre-parade coverage and four repeats of the main event--had set a record last year when it drew 1.26 million households to its live telecast and another 1.46 million to four repeats.

Sawyer, Gumbel Contemplate Future: Diane Sawyer has a “window” upcoming later this month in her ABC contract, which will allow her to talk to other networks--including CBS News, which is interested in hiring her is an anchor--even though ABC wants to keep her. Sawyer is said to make $7 million a year on her five-year ABC contract, which expires in 1998. Meanwhile, ABC News is said to be offering a new prime-time newsmagazine and a slot on the network’s ESPN sports channel to Bryant Gumbel, who left the “Today” show on Friday after 15 years.

MUSIC

National Hero: Latino music legend Eduardo “Lalo” Guerrero on Friday called his being named this week to receive a National Medal of the Arts Award “the crowning point” of his life. “I turned 80 on Christmas Eve, and it’s the best Christmas present ever,” Guerrero told The Times, speaking from his home in Cathedral City. “I was born in Tucson, Arizona, of a middle-to-lower-income family in what we call the barrio, and just to think that a young man born and raised in that environment would someday get to the White House to dine with the president and first lady is beyond my wildest dreams.” Guerrero has had hits on both sides of the border during his 60-year career, including the classic “Cancion Mexicana,” which is considered the unofficial anthem of Mexico. Last year, a children’s album Guerrero recorded with Los Lobos, called “Papa’s Dream,” got a Grammy nomination. The National Medal of Arts is given by the National Endowment for the Arts, which in 1991 gave Guerrero a National Heritage Fellowship. Guerrero also was named a National Folk Treasure by the Smithsonian Institution in 1980.

MOVIES

Double Honors for Rob Reiner: Film director Rob Reiner (“When Harry Met Sally . . . ,” “A Few Good Men,” “The Ghosts of Mississippi”), who began his career as an actor and gained prominence in the ‘70s as Archie Bunker’s son-in-law on “All in the Family,” will be honored for “his 30 years of career achievements in motion pictures and television” with a special tribute presented as part of the “23rd Annual People’s Choice Awards,” airing Jan. 12 on CBS. Previous recipients of the tribute have included Steven Spielberg, Jodie Foster and Tom Hanks. Meanwhile, Reiner will also be honored on March 2 at the third annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. He will receive the American Film Institute Star Award as part of an AFI Filmmakers’ Retrospective showcasing several of his films.

Two More ‘Fargo’ Votes: For the first time in their 20-year partnership, TV movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert have agreed on the year’s three best films, with “Fargo” ranking No. 1 with both. The critics’ next two favorites--albeit in differing order--were “Secrets & Lies” and “Breaking the Waves.” Both also picked John Sayles’ “Lone Star” among their top 5. The duo disclose their entire Top 10 list on Sunday’s program (6:30 p.m. on KABC-TV Channel 7), and on Jan. 12 they pick the “Worst Films of 1996.”

‘Lion’ Lawsuit: Bay Area writer Bud H.G. Newman III has filed a copyright infringement suit against the Walt Disney Co. claiming the studio stole material from his 1991 book “Why the Lion Is King” for its 1994 animated hit “The Lion King” and subsequent books based on the movie. Newman’s L.A. federal court lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction barring Disney from publishing, selling or marketing any more “Lion King” books. A Disney spokesman said the company never comments on pending litigation.

QUICK TAKES

Another “Baywatch”-Motley Crue union took place over the Christmas holidays. Series star Donna D’Errico married the band’s bass player, Nikki Sixx, on Dec. 23 at their Malibu home. The coupling follows that of former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson to Tommy Lee, Motley Crue’s drummer. . . . Gap Stores Inc. co-founder Dorris F. Fisher, 65, has been appointed to the 11-member California Arts Council. Fisher, a Republican from San Francisco, also serves in influential committee positions with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Symphony, Washington’s National Gallery of Art, the Art Museum of Princeton University, Stanford University and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. She and her husband, Don Fisher, received the California Arts Council Governor’s Award for Patron of the Arts in 1991. . . . “Get Shorty” author Elmore Leonard will go online Monday at 4 p.m. (at https://www.turner.com/tntoriginals) to discuss the latest adaptation of his work, “Last Stand at Saber River,” airing Jan. 19 on cable’s TNT.