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

TELEVISION

The Millionaires: NBC’s “Seinfeld” and “ER” are the first regular prime-time shows to command $1 million per minute in advertising revenue, according to estimates compiled by Advertising Age. Jerry Seinfeld’s show takes in roughly $550,000 for a 30-second commercial while the hospital drama collects $500,000, the magazine said. The major studios, in particular, see NBC’s Thursday lineup as a key means of promoting their new movies opening on Fridays, paying a premium for ad time. Not surprisingly, two shows airing opposite “Friends” and “Seinfeld,” the CBS dramas “Diagnosis Murder” and “Moloney,” are at the bottom of the Ad Age rankings, at $60,000 for each commercial.

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Small Screen Theater: KCET-TV Channel 28 has commissioned three Los Angeles playwrights--Luis Alfaro, Han Ong and Alison Carey--to create works for television to be premiered on the station Sept. 30 at 9:30 p.m. on “The Works V: screenpLAys.” The hourlong program, part of KCET’s arts and culture series “The Works,” will allow each artist to focus on particular notions of “home in Los Angeles.” Alfaro’s piece, “Chicanismo,” will encompass four monologues reflecting “unapologetic comic portraits of assimilation”: a middle-aged maid, an unwed teenage mother, a Gap store clerk and a Chicano studies professor. Ong will collaborate with media artist Ming Yuen S. Ma in “Not XL,” a play centering on two young Asian hustlers and “their search for a home away from the harsh realities of life” on West Hollywood’s Santa Monica Boulevard. And Carey’s “California Sea Gull,” a short film based on Cornerstone Theatre Company’s recent adaptation of Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” will be set in rural California and feature three characters “who are escaping from or fantasizing about L.A. at a distance.”

POP/ROCK

Reliving History: Thousands of screaming extras in San Antonio helped recreate Selena’s last big concert for a movie about the slain Tejano singer. For about 90 minutes Sunday, they jumped to their feet, waved their arms in the air and cheered loudly as Jennifer Lopez, who’s playing Selena, entered the Alamodome. “It’s an incredible rush,” Lopez said of the role. “Selena” is scheduled for release next summer. The scene was modeled after a concert held Feb. 26, 1995, during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, a month before Selena was gunned down at a Corpus Christi motel.

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‘Comrade’ Michael: Michael Jackson moonwalks before a Moscow audience today after arriving in the city over the weekend to the usual throng of screaming fans. But he also got a skeptical greeting from Leonid Zakharov, who complained in Komsomolskaya Pravda about Jackson’s style. “Michael Jackson likes to be called the ‘King of Pop,’ although a more fitting name would be ‘comrade general secretary,’ ” the commentator wrote. “He has. . . . started bringing on his tours huge statues of himself, made in the worst traditions of totalitarian monumentalism (one of them he has managed to ensconce in Prague on the same spot where once stood a sculpture of Stalin--yet another lover of pseudo-army uniforms). The only thing he still lacks is a mausoleum with . . . an honor guard. Let’s hope this is still far in the future.” To illustrate Zakharov’s point, the paper published a doctored photo of Lenin’s mausoleum with Jackson’s name superimposed.

MUSIC

Silence in Philly: Tonight’s opening night of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s season was canceled after musicians on Monday set up picket lines at the Academy of Music. The 103 musicians and two librarians, members of the American Federation of Musicians, voted Friday to reject the orchestra’s final contract offer and voted 100-0 Sunday to conduct their first strike in 30 years. A key issue is a request for a $6,000 annual “electronic media guarantee,” a share of the orchestra’s income from radio performances and recordings. The last management offer included a 10% raise in the $72,000 base salary over three years and a one-year electronic media guarantee of $2,000, orchestra board chairman Peter Benoliel said.

QUICK TAKES

Today’s scheduled opening of the $5.5-million Hollywood Entertainment Museum was postponed to Wednesday due to technical difficulties. The museum is at 7021 Hollywood Blvd., in the heart of Hollywood Boulevard’s revitalization district. . . . “Shine,” a dramatic film about the emergence of pianist David Helfgott from a decade of personal torment, was the big winner at the Toronto Film Festival, which ended over the weekend. The New Line Features film, directed by Australian filmmaker Scott Hicks, took the Air Canada People’s Choice Award and the Metro Media Award. It opens here Nov. 22. . . . This year’s Ovation Awards ceremony--the L.A. area’s primary peer-judged theater competition--will be held at the Shubert Theatre in Century City on Nov. 18. . . . Former ‘70s teen idol David Cassidy will temporarily replace Michael Crawford in “EFX,” the $41-million special effects and musical production at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand. Crawford is recuperating from a hip injury. . . . Filmmaker Steven Spielberg was elected to the USC Board of Trustees. . . . Elizabeth Armstrong, curator at Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center since 1989, has been named senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, effective Oct. 28. . . . Eleanor Mondale, daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale, signed on as entertainment contributor for CBS’ “This Morning,” reporting from L.A. She’ll continue as host of E! Entertainment TV’s “Uncut,” which profiles celebrities.