FIRST OFF . . .

Michael Cimino has lost a Directors Guild of America arbitration over his right to make a final cut of “The Sicilian”--clearing the way for producer David Begelman’s Gladden Entertainment Corp. to finish the film. Cimino had sought the arbitration after filing a lawsuit to block Begelman from cutting the film to two hours. Cimino had originally submitted a longer version, then cut it to two hours and five minutes; but Begelman argued that Cimino’s last cut intentionally removed important scenes “as a device” to get 20th Century Fox Film Corp., the movie’s distributor, to release the longer version. Bertram Fields, an attorney for Begelman, said the producer had hired a “world-class” film editor to deliver a version that would be “very close” to Cimino’s last cut. Fields maintained that the DGA arbitration removed the principal issues from the pending lawsuit, under which Cimino and Gladden filed complaints against each other. Stanton Stein, Cimino’s attorney, was not available for comment on the arbitration.