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

MOVIES

Rejecting a ‘Mission’?: Brian De Palma, who directed “Mission: Impossible,” has been keeping a low profile while the film has rocketed to blockbuster status. After spending 2 1/2 years directing the Tom Cruise spy thriller, a weary De Palma didn’t even show up for the premiere. Asked in recent days by The Times if he’d like to direct the sequel already being planned for the summer of 1998, De Palma said: “It’s premature to think about it, but I don’t think so. I’m not ready to make another commitment like that.” De Palma added, though, that he was very happy with how things turned out. “Tom did a fabulous job of producing,” he said of the star’s first outing as a producer. The film marks a comeback for De Palma whose last hit was 1987’s “The Untouchables,” another Paramount remake of a popular TV series.

*

Shatner on Skates: Montreal-born William Shatner, long familiar as Capt. Kirk in “Star Trek,” will don a Houston Aeros uniform to star in the role of legendary Canadian hockey player Gordie Howe for a film version of Colleen Howe’s “My Three Hockey Players,” the Larry Thompson Organization announced Monday. Colleen Howe, Gordie’s wife and the mother of their sons Mark and Marty, tells how her husband came out of retirement to play with their sons in the World Hockey Assn. in the 1970s. They led the Aeros to a championship in 1974. Executive Producer Thompson said he was still putting together other details of the film package.

TELEVISION

Something Special: A 1906 Victorian townhouse in the Napa Valley gets restored in a hurry on a five-part “This Old House” marathon June 15 from 4 to 7 p.m. on KCET Channel 28. The rapid rebuilding is part of some unusual programming marking a mini membership drive for the public television station during the latter half of June. Another marathon will be offered June 23 when the critically acclaimed four-part series “Chicano! The History of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement” will be shown between 3:45 and 9 p.m. The series will be flanked by two encore presentations of the “Great Performances” music special “Linda Ronstadt: Canciones de mi Padre,” at 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.

*

Coming on Cable: HBO NYC Productions on Monday unveiled an ambitious slate of development projects for the premium cable service, covering topics as varied as Pentagon spending to a history of black music produced by Quincy Jones’ company and a biography of drug lord Pablo Escobar. Robert Cooper, president of the HBO unit, noted that he can afford to take risks since the cable outlet is “freed from the dictates of the box office.” Other projects in the works include a futuristic tale by Norman Mailer, “The Last Night”; a drama about life in the Lyndon Johnson administration as the Vietnam War escalated; a romance set against the birth of rap music; and a comedy about a stand-up comedian who becomes a star after his agent dies of a heart attack during his performance. HBO also announced that it has completed production on “Path to Paradise,” a drama about the investigation of the World Trade Center bombing, starring Peter Gallagher and Art Malik.

*

Focus on High Schools: “Class of 2000,” a project that will examine America over the next four years through the eyes of this fall’s high school freshman class, was announced Monday by CBS officials. CBS News and other network entities, including radio and TV stations, will follow the students through the year 2000, when they will graduate, in an effort to portray “America’s problems and promise at the dawn of a new century.” The project’s reports will appear on news, morning and newsmagazine shows, as well as on specials and through local programming. The project will also encompass Internet chat rooms for teenagers and a CBS News poll.

QUICK TAKES

A three-hour telethon on Spanish-language television station KVEA-TV Channel 52 on Sunday netted pledges of $80,015 for the Leukemia Society of America. The program was hosted from the station’s Glendale studios by Jose A. Ronstadt and Jessica Maldonado, co-anchors of the morning program “Hola Los Angeles.” . . . Henry T. Hopkins will remain as director of the UCLA at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center rather than return to teaching, as previously planned, it was announced by UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young. A search for a director to replace Hopkins, who will remain at the museum until July 1, 1988, will be launched next year. . . . The garment workers/Kathie Lee Gifford controversy is only part of a much larger picture, “Dateline” correspondent Dennis Murphy reports tonight (KNBC-TV Channel 4, 10 p.m.). After nearly a yearlong investigation, Murphy finds that the U.S. is being flooded with garments made in Central American and Caribbean sweatshops. . . . Charlton Heston took the role of supporting player at a showing of his wife’s photographs in Manitowoc, Wis., Saturday to benefit a YMCA college scholarship program. “The show is dedicated to my husband, who has carried my Hasselblads [cameras] over five continents,” said Lydia Clarke Heston, a native of Two Rivers, Wis. More than 100 friends and fans paid $350 a couple to dine with the Hestons at the Rahr-West Art Museum.