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

MUSIC

Cumming Appointed: Edward Cumming, former assistant conductor of Orange County’s foremost orchestra, the Santa Ana-based Pacific Symphony, has been appointed resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony for the 1997-98 season. Cumming, 40, was selected from 180 applicants. He had been at the Pacific from 1993 until leaving in 1996 to become assistant conductor in Pittsburgh. He also served this summer as music director at the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts in Arizona. Elizabeth Stoyanovich succeeded Cumming at the Pacific, becoming the first woman appointed to the post in the orchestra’s history.

ART

Gardner Heist: The Boston Herald has reported that one of its reporters got a furtive, middle-of-the-night glance at what appeared to be a Rembrandt that was stolen along with 11 other artworks in a $300-million 1990 theft from Boston’s Isabella Steward Gardner Museum. However, the paper said the reporter was unable to verify the Rembrandt’s authenticity and was not allowed to see any other paintings. The report comes as antiques dealer William P. Youngworth III and imprisoned art thief Myles J. Connor are trying to broker a deal with the FBI for reward money and freedom from prosecution in exchange for help in returning the stolen art. The reporter’s glance at the alleged Rembrandt was said to be proof that the paintings remain in the United States, available for negotiation. The paper said it was told the theft was commissioned by an international organized crime figure.

QUICK TAKES

An independent arbitrator has OKd the North Hollywood-based Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ plan to award Emmys for commercials, starting with this year’s awards (Sept. 14 on CBS). The rival, New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences had sought to keep the awarding of commercial Emmys to itself. . . . Tracy Scoggins (“Lois and Clark”) has joined the cast of “Babylon 5”--the previously syndicated series that begins its fifth season on cable’s TNT next January--as the space station’s new captain. . . . Liz Torres (“The John Larroquette Show”) has joined the cast of ABC’s new fall series “Over the Top,” as Rose, the housekeeper. The series, starring Tim Curry and Annie Potts, premieres Sept. 23. . . . Jacquelyn R. McNealey, who was paralyzed by a shot fired at a 1993 Tupac Shakur concert, has filed an L.A. Superior Court suit against the late rapper’s estate, saying she has been payed none of a $16.6-million judgment against the estate that she was awarded in Arkansas last November. An appeal on that judgment is pending.