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

MOVIES

Returning to His Own ‘Hell’: Filmmaker Artur Brauner, producer of “From Hell to Hell,” Belarus’ controversial entry for the foreign language Oscar, returned home to Berlin Monday to find his studio burned to the ground and millions of dollars of damage in what German investigators have termed an arson fire. Brauner had been here for the L.A. premiere Thursday of his film at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which drew scores of complaints from Polish-Americans upset over the true story of Holocaust survivors murdered in Poland after the war. A spokeswoman for the film said Tuesday that Brauner was not placing blame for the fire with any specific group, and noted that while the German press covered the controversy surrounding the L.A. premiere, the German consulate had released a public message of support for Brauner, who has produced 18 films with Holocaust themes. “From Hell to Hell,” while entered in the Oscar race by Belarus, was submitted to the Golden Globe competition as a German film as it was a co-production between the two countries.

And the Oscar Goes to: Martha Raye’s Oscar is about to get a new home. The late entertainer received it in 1969 as the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which the Academy gave for her work with charities and for entertaining U.S. troops abroad. Thursday her estate will donate the statuette to the Friars Club during a tribute to Raye that will include clips of her film work and appearances by Milton Berle, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, Jayne Meadows, Bill Dana and Rosemarie. Friars Club Abbot Steve Allen, who will host the festivities, called the Oscar’s new home “wonderfully appropriate” and said he was mounting the tribute so he could showcase Raye’s talents to the “many young people who don’t know of her.” According to academy President Arthur Hiller, who will be on hand to present the Oscar to Allen, Raye indicated during her lifetime that she wanted her Oscar to “be among her friends at the Friars Club.” Raye’s Oscar--the Friars’ first--will be displayed in a specially built showcase at the entrance to the club’s dining room in Beverly Hills.

Silverstone Takes On Science Class: Alicia Silverstone, who starred as an affluent teenager in the movie “Clueless,” returns to Beverly Hills High today for the first showing of her new public service announcement urging kids to “use your right to refuse” to dissect animals in science classes. The ad, sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, includes the tag line: “Science class doesn’t have to be a funeral.” It features music donated by Keanu Reeves’ band Dogstar and will begin airing on TV stations nationwide later this month.

POP/ROCK

Bosnian ‘Peace Train’: The British singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, who gave up his music career in the ‘70s and now goes by the name Yusuf Islam, announced plans Tuesday to return to recording with a collection of Bosnian songs plus two of his own compositions. At a news conference in Sarajevo, he said he’d been impressed by the music he heard on a visit to Bosnia for the Islamic Ramadan holiday. That experience, he said, made him “want to do something more” in the music field, which he abandoned when he converted to Islam some 18 years ago. The Bosnian album, which he hopes to release this year, would include a song written and perhaps sung by Islam in memory of children killed in Bosnian conflicts and at a school massacre in Dunblane, Scotland. Islam’s only recording since 1979 has been a 66-minute narration, in 1995, of the life of the prophet Mohammed.

TV/VIDEO

Cable Notes: Author Arianna Huffington, who teamed with comedian Al Franken to cover the 1996 political campaigns for cable’s Comedy Central, has signed a development deal with the network that includes a series pilot. The proposed show is a half-hour political satire; Huffington says she’ll cover “what is going on in Washington these days,” including updates on “scandals and issues” surrounding such figures as Dick Morris, Paula Jones and Newt Gingrich. . . . Nick at Night and Nick at Night’s TV Land will get caught in a time warp Friday when the two channels bring back ABC’s classic Friday night prime-time lineup from 1972, complete with commercials from the period. At 8 p.m. on Nick, and at 5 p.m. on TV Land, the programming will kick off with “The Brady Bunch,” followed by “The Partridge Family,” “Room 222,” “The Odd Couple” and “Love American Style.”

His Juice Still Flowing: The man who used to portray O.J. Simpson in E! Entertainment’s daily reenactments of Simpson’s civil trial is not letting moss grow under his feet. Stephen Wayne Eskridge, fired from E! last month in a dispute over salary and publicity, is appearing Thursday in a nightclub act at Lunaria in West Los Angeles where he is billing himself as an “ ‘E’ Channel Star.” Gil Colon has taken over the Simpson role on E!’s “The O.J. Civil Trial.”

‘Super Bowl’ On Video: For those football fans out there unable to catch Sunday’s big game between the Green Bay Packers and the New England Patriots: Don’t despair. “Super Bowl XXXI Champions,” the official home video of the game, is due to hit stores on Feb. 18, just three weeks after the big event. It will be released by PolyGram Video and NFL Films; the suggested retail price is $19.95.

QUICK TAKES

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster will guest on Fox’s “The X-Files” Feb. 2, but in voice only: She’ll “speak for a deadly tattoo that is telling a man to commit murder.” . . . Television executive Brandon Tartikoff, 48, is undergoing chemotherapy for a recurrence of Hodgkin’s disease, his third battle with the disease since 1981, according to Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd.