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

TELEVISION

Brother and Sister Teaming: In a first for newsmagazine programming, the syndicated show “American Journal” will introduce a brother-sister anchor team when it begins its fifth season. Michele Dabney-Perez and her brother, former nationally syndicated talk-show host Charles Perez, will assume co-anchor duties in September. The show will expand to include more harder-edged news stories and incorporate reaction to breaking stories coast-to-coast via reports from the show’s affiliates and the Internet.

Povich on the Move: Maury Povich and his issues-oriented talk show will have a new home next year. Povich, who has hosted a show for Paramount Domestic Television since 1991, will host a new one-hour show for Universal Television in the fall of 1998. The announcement came just a few days after plans for a new show with Povich and his wife, Connie Chung, for DreamWorks Television that would have started in fall 1998 fell through. Povich, who is under contract to Paramount until next fall, had been negotiating with Paramount to extend his show beyond 1998. Universal reportedly offered him $10 million a year, while Paramount only offered him $6 million, sources said. A Paramount spokeswoman said, “Maury and Paramount have enjoyed a successful relationship over the past six years, but now we are looking forward to continual growth of our current talk shows, as well as to the future of new projects.”

MOVIES

‘Dangerous’ Stories: An aspiring screenwriter says Michelle Pfeiffer stole his ideas and used them in the 1995 movie “Dangerous Minds.” Lawrence Booker, 38, contends portions of a story he wrote called “Barrio Kids,” about inner-city high school students, appeared in the film. He is seeking $75,000 in damages in a lawsuit filed two weeks ago in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The movie’s credits say the film is based on the book “My Posse Don’t Do Homework,” by Marine-turned-teacher LouAnne Johnson, portrayed by Pfeiffer, who finds a way to reach underachieving high school students. Booker asserted he is the father of the little girl the actress adopted four years ago in an “open adoption” arrangement that lets biological parents stay in touch with their children. Booker says the child’s mother had a copy of “Barrio Kids” when she visited the actress in June 1994. Pfeiffer’s publicist Lois Smith said that the actress denied ever meeting Booker or the biological mother of her child and that the adoption was “closed.” Also, she said the film was completed before Booker claims to have sent his work to Pfeiffer. Smith said she believes Pfeiffer has been wrongfully targeted by Booker for financial gain.

POP/ROCK

Suing Doggy Dogg: Snoop Doggy Dogg has been sued by former manager Sharitha Knight, who claims she was not paid her 20% share during a time when the rapper earned $8 million. Knight is the estranged wife of Marion “Suge” Knight, the Death Row Records magnate who is serving a nine-year prison sentence for violating probation on a 1992 assault. She is running the record company, which is besieged by multimillion-dollar claims from creditors and a federal investigation of alleged links to drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion. The singer, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, is “spending large sums of money on frivolous items and objects,” according to the lawsuit filed Friday.

STAGE

Tonys Set the Tone: As New York recovered from toasting the best of Broadway Sunday night, a West Coast Tonys party at the Palladium in Hollywood also was called a success--with perhaps too much enthusiasm in the theater-loving crowd. Rita Moreno, a former Tony winner who hosted the live satellite feed of the New York awards show organized by the Actors Fund and Aid for AIDS in Los Angeles, scolded the crowd for not showing proper respect. Moreno beseeched the 500 attendees assembled for the event: “Can we get a little quiet? I am not only surprised at the amount of networking I see going on, but appalled. This is not the Oscars, please.” To lighten things up again, Moreno made a self-deprecating remark about herself that rhymes with witch. About $120,000 was raised for the two groups through ticket sales and a silent auction of theater and industry items. The night ended on a respectful note when veteran stage actress Julie Harris was presented a lifetime achievement award. Accepting the award on a night she was up for a Tony herself for her performance in “The Gin Game,” a very moved Harris said, “I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the world.” . . . In more Tony news, the awards telecast jumped more than 30% compared to last year in the major cities monitored by Nielsen Media Research, attracting the Broadway showcase’s biggest audience in at least three years. The awards show attracted 20% of the available audience.

QUICK TAKES

The Los Angeles chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences at its annual awards luncheon today will honor singer Melissa Manchester, radio personality Rick Dees, producer-songwriter Glen Ballard, NARAS President Michael Greene and Kathy Nelson, president, Music, Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group.