MOVIESLatinos to Protest: A group upset over...

MOVIES

Latinos to Protest: A group upset over the lack of Latinos in lead roles in the new film “The House of the Spirits” is urging the Latino moviegoing public to stay home and rent videos featuring Latino actors this weekend. “We want to send a message to Hollywood and the movie industry in general,” said actor-writer Del Zamora. “We are not being allowed the opportunities to portray Latinos in leading roles. . . . So, we are going to stop buying tickets to movies.” “The House of the Spirits,” set against a South American backdrop, features a veritable who’s who cast including Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, Winona Ryder and Vanessa Redgrave. Spanish actor Antonio Banderas and Cuban-born actress Maria Conchita Alonso appear in the film, which opens today. Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of U.S. distributor Miramax Films, said Thursday: “The director, Bille August, and the producers cast the film based on what they felt would be the best artistic and creative decisions for the picture.” A spokeswoman for Miramax noted that the film was produced by European companies, which “naturally hired a largely European cast.” Zamora said his protesters will cover their heads with Mexican wrestling hoods to protect performers “who do not want to be identified and blacklisted.”

* Dracul-Oz: Producer Marvin Worth (“Malcolm X”) has joined forces with Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff (“Tommy”) and Oscar-winning composer Alan Menken (“Beauty and the Beast”) to mount a project insiders describe as “a horror musical in the spirit of the ‘Wizard of Oz.’ ” No lyricist has been set. The film is being developed at the Walt Disney Studios where Menken has an exclusive deal. Worth, who originated the idea several years ago, is writing a treatment with McAnuff that will be submitted to the studio next week.

THE ARTS

An Inauspicious Debut: Critical reaction was tepid at best to Yoko Ono’s first Off-Broadway musical, “New York Rock,” which opened Wednesday night at New York’s WPA Theater. Ono wrote the story and music, but does not perform in the work, which mirrors the gunshot slaying of husband John Lennon when the central character is shot dead by muggers. While several critics granted Ono the “right” to use the work as a plea for peace, they were less agreeable with her method. “It is painful to report that . . . (Ono’s) creative re-entry after years of isolation is a sappy, preachy, soft-pop musical that wears its good intentions like a scout badge,” wrote Newsday’s Linda Winer. The Post’s Clive Barnes called the work “an odd fish” with “only a feebly derivative score, banal lyrics with little rhyme and less reason, and a simplistic story.” The New York Times’ Steven Holden, however, called “New York Rock” a “return to the style of tribal rock musicals like ‘Hair.’ ” He said Ono’s best lyrics “have a fanciful dreaminess that invites the listener to fill in personal associations,” while her “worst song . . . sinks under an embarrassing hail of epithets like pig and scum.”

* Salonen’s Commission: L.A. Philharmonic Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen has been commissioned to compose a major work for Tokyo’s Suntory Hall for its 1997 season. Each year, the Suntory International Program for Music Composition picks a noted composer to write a new work. Previous participants include Toru Takemitsu, John Cage, Lukas Foss and Hans Werner Henze.

POP/ROCK

More Bricks in the Wall: Amid giant inflatable pigs and multicolored lasers, Pink Floyd returned to the limelight Wednesday night with its first concert in more than five years. Despite steady rain, more than 55,000 fans watched the psychedelic rockers’ two-hour show at Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium. It was the first of 37 North American concerts for the British band, which is promoting its soon-to-be released album, “The Division Bell.” The group opened with “Astronomy Domine” from its 1967 debut album, then moved on to songs from the better-known “Dark Side of the Moon.” Pink Floyd expanded to 11 members for the tour, although the only remaining early members are guitarist David Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason. Syd Barrett is long gone, and Roger Waters left the band in 1985.

QUICK TAKES

Actor Burt Reynolds, hospitalized Wednesday after complaining of chest pains, was discharged Thursday morning and plans to return to the set of TV’s “Evening Shade” next Tuesday. Doctors gave the 58-year-old actor a clean bill of health, and “Evening Shade” producer Lamar Jackson said the ailment was “strictly, strictly stress related.” . . . Reviving a 4-year-old court case, a federal prosecutor has charged cable’s CNN with “knowingly and willfully” disobeying court orders not to broadcast tape recordings of ousted Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega’s jailhouse conversations in 1990. CNN pleaded innocent to the charge on Wednesday; a non-jury trial is set for July 11. . . . Luciano Pavarotti has extended his current worldwide contract with Polygram’s Decca-London label into the next century.. . . KLSX-FM mid-morning air personality Shana has left the station. In her place as of this week is veteran L.A. deejay Cynthia Fox, formerly heard on weekends.