Blockbuster to Buy Stake in Spelling : Entertainment: Pushing further into Hollywood, the video store chain will acquire 48.2% in a $141.3-million deal.

Blockbuster Entertainment, accelerating its drive into Hollywood, disclosed plans Monday to buy a 48.2% stake in Spelling Entertainment--which produces such TV shows as “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place”--in a deal valued at $141.3 million.

The acquisition will give Blockbuster, the largest home video store chain in the country, access to Spelling’s vast library of more than 12,000 hours of programming, ranging from episodes of “The Love Boat” to TV rights to the film “Basic Instinct.”

In recent months, Ft. Lauderdale-based Blockbuster has announced several diversification moves aimed at making it less dependent on its core video-rental business.

In January, Blockbuster acquired a 35% interest in Republic Pictures. Earlier, it bought 236 Music Plus and Sound Warehouse stores from Roy E. Disney’s Shamrock Holdings. Blockbuster has also formed a partnership with London’s Virgin Retail to build large entertainment “mega-stores” and a joint venture with IBM to develop new entertainment-related technologies.

Blockbuster is acquiring the stake in Spelling held by Cincinnati-based American Financial Corp., which itself is owned by investor Carl Lindner and his family. Lindner, a friend of Blockbuster Chairman H. Wayne Huizenga, first acquired a stake in Spelling three years ago and subsequently bought out the holdings of founder Aaron Spelling.

The proposed deal calls for Blockbuster to swap about 7.6 million shares of its common stock for American Financial’s 24.5 million shares in Spelling. In addition, the Lindner firm gets warrants to buy an additional 2 million shares of Blockbuster at $25 each. The deal would give the Lindner family control of about 3.8% of Blockbuster’s stock before exercise of the warrants.

On Monday, Blockbuster stock closed up 12.5 cents at $18.75 on the New York Stock Exchange. Spelling closed down 12.5 cents at $6.875.

“There is going to be a need for programming with the proliferation of cable channels and direct broadcast satellites,” said Blockbuster Senior Vice President J. Ronald Castell. “So libraries are a valuable asset.”

Blockbuster has discussed the possibility of launching its own cable-TV channel and is looking at how it might play a role in the 500-channel cable TV systems that are expected to become increasingly available in the coming years.

The firm does not plan to go into the movie production business, an ambition that has ruined many other companies when they get more closely involved with Hollywood.

“We don’t plan to put on sunglasses and Armani suits and reserve the corner table at Morton’s,” Castell said.