Entertainment

STARR REPORT

‘House’ rules at 9

Fox’s “House” picked up right where it left off last season, scoring solid ratings in its second-season debut Tuesday. The Hugh Laurie hospital drama, featuring guest star Sela Ward, averaged 15.7 million viewers from 9 to 10 p.m., and built on its lead-in, the new series “Bones,” which averaged 10.4 million viewers (8-9 p.m.). Speaking

of “House,” LL Cool J, who guest-starred in Tuesday’s season premiere, appears tonight at Posh (Garden City Hotel).

In other premiere news, “Supernatural” notched 5.7 million viewers in its Tuesday debut – and The WB’s best adults 18-49 numbers, in that timeslot, in two years.

Last, but not least:

* Last Friday’s networkwide Hurricane Katrina benefit concert raised around $30 million for the Red Cross and Salvation Army, according to network estimates. This amount doesn’t reflect “a full accounting of funds, particularly in international territories.”

* Saturday: Cousin Brucie goes live from the San Gennaro Feast in Little Italy (8-11 p.m./Sirius). “I’ll try to get people all over the country to smell the sausage and peppers,” says Brucie.

* Juliet Huddy and Mike Jerrick take over as the hosts of “Dayside” on Fox News Channel (1-2 p.m. weekdays) beginning this Monday.

* Tonight at Rock Candy: Ch. 2’s Jeff Berardelli and galpal Elisa DiStefano (News 12 Long Island) host a fundraiser to benefit the Tunnel To Towers Foundation’s “9-11 Families For Katrina Relief” effort.

* Stock character: CNBC mouth-frother Jim Cramer plays himself on Monday’s season premiere of “Arrested Development” in a scene with Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman).

* Kerry Washington (“Boston Legal”) at the Charlotte Ronson fashion show at Hotel QT earlier this week;

Sophia Bush (“One Tree Hill”) running into her idol, S. Epatha Merkerson (“Law & Order”), at the Gen Art Fresh Faces in Fashion show.

* What’s with Martha Stewart and the T-shirt-folding on “Martha”? Enough already. Show me how to fold a sheet with elastic, rounded corners and I’ll be impressed.