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

MOVIES

Oldest Film Found: The American Film Institute announced Tuesday that it has been given the oldest surviving American feature film, a 1912 silent version of “Richard III,” which a 77-year-old collector, William Buffam, had stored in his Portland, Ore., basement for more than 30 years. Buffam didn’t realize the full significance of his film but ran it by hand once a year to keep it from sticking, the AFI said. Institute Director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg called the acquisition “without a doubt the single most important film discovery in AFI’s history and . . . one of the most significant film finds ever.” Produced three years before “Birth of a Nation,” the five-reel film--in “near-mint condition”--is an original nitrate print and features a rare coloring process, AFI said. Filmed in Westchester County, N.Y., “Richard III” stars Frederick C. Warde, the preeminent Shakespearean actor of his time. The movie cost $30,000 and included 70 scenes, hundreds of actors and extras, 200 horses, five battle scenes and lush costumes. The AFI will preserve the film, adding it to its collection at the Library of Congress, and will arrange for public viewings.

TELEVISION

A ‘Schwag’ Day: The price of fame is proving pretty costly for Micah Papp, 20, who was known as Manny the Hippie when he appeared as a movie critic and guest on the “Late Show With David Letterman.” Authorities in Greene County, Ohio, spotted Papp on TV from Haight-Ashbury and asked San Francisco lawmen to apprehend him for violating probation on a marijuana conviction by leaving the state without permission. Instead, Papp returned voluntarily to Xenia, Ohio, and surrendered. On Tuesday, he was ordered held pending sentencing Oct. 2 after a judge warned him he faces up to 18 months behind bars. “I knew they would eventually get hip and see me on TV and say, ‘Let’s go get him,’ ” Papp told reporters. “But it was a chance worth taking. At least now I have a career.” He had taken Letterman on a tour of the Haight and exposed him to street lingo such as “schwag” (bad), “dank” (good) and “diggity dank” (quite good).

CNBC Stirs Lineup: In an effort to attract more viewers, the CNBC cable channel announced plans Tuesday to shake up its prime-time talk-show schedule, dropping “America After Hours,” moving “Charles Grodin” to a later hour and adding month-old reruns of NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” The O’Brien show will air weeknights at 7 and 10 p.m., beginning Dec. 2. Grodin’s talk show, currently seen at those times, will air at 8 and 11 p.m., where “America After Hours” has been running. CNBC also is revamping its weekend lineup as of Oct. 5, dropping the shows hosted by Gerry Spence, Al Roker and Cal Thomas, moving several business-related programs to the early evening and adding “Scan,” a series about technology, and “Inside America’s Courts,” a series about legal matters.

POP/ROCK

Oasis Plans Album: British pop superstars Oasis, rocked by rumors of a split, said in a statement issued in London on Tuesday that they would release a new album next summer. After abruptly pulling out of a concert tour of the United States last week, the million-selling band said it would start work on the long-awaited third album next month. When their tour collapsed amid reports that singer Liam Gallagher and his guitarist brother Noel had come to blows, their record company denied reports Oasis would split but confirmed they would not be touring for the foreseeable future. In their statement, Oasis denied reports of internal differences, disappointing ticket sales in the U.S. and suggestions that Liam’s girlfriend was breaking up the band. “It was a decision taken solely by Noel Gallagher on behalf of his four friends [band mates],” the statement said. Oasis, whose first two albums have sold 20 million copies, have led a “Britpop” explosion not seen since the Beatles split up in 1970.

Cranberries Bog Down: Another hot group from abroad, the Cranberries, announced Tuesday that they have “regretfully canceled” the nine remaining dates of their U.S. tour because lead singer Dolores O’Riordan is suffering from flu and exhaustion. The Irish group was to have appeared Sept. 29 at the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion and Sept. 30 at the Forum. There were no plans to reschedule the canceled dates.

QUICK TAKES

“60 Minutes” has landed the first TV interview with Atlanta security guard Richard Jewell since the Atlanta Constitution and TV networks named him as an FBI suspect in the Olympics bombing. Mike Wallace interviewed Jewell in Atlanta, and the story will air this Sunday on “60 Minutes.” . . . Connie Chung, who was forced out of her co-anchoring duties with Dan Rather at CBS last year, was named a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government for the 1997 spring semester. Center director Marvin Kalb, a former NBC correspondent, said Chung will write “a reflective paper on her experiences at very senior levels of network news.”. . . The black cowboy hat Yul Brynner wore in the 1960 film “The Magnificent Seven” sold for $15,000 at a Paris auction of the late actor’s possessions Monday. Brynner died in 1985 at age 70. . . . When Robert Chesley’s play “Jerker” aired on radio station KPFK 10 years ago, it caused a flap that resulted in new FCC guidelines. Today at 7:30 a.m., the cast of the play’s current Highways production makes a visit to KPFK to celebrate the anniversary.