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

POP MUSIC

Hall of Famers: Joni Mitchell, the Jackson 5 and the Bee Gees are among a diverse group of artists who have been elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Suzan Evans, executive director of the Hall of Fame Foundation, said Wednesday that they will be inducted at the 12th annual dinner, on May 15 at the Hall of Fame museum in Cleveland, along with Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Parliament-Funkadelic; and the Rascals. Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after their recording debut and are judged by a panel of approximately 1,000 critics, musicians and record industry executives. The panel had been widely criticized in the rock community for its slowness in electing Mitchell. Considered by many critics to be one of the half-dozen most acclaimed singer-songwriters of the modern pop era, Mitchell has been eligible since 1994. In fact, all seven inductees have been passed over in previous balloting, making next year’s ceremony the first in which there won’t be at least one act to be inducted during its first year of eligibility. The most notable artists to be passed over this year in their first year of eligibility were Bonnie Raitt and Michael Jackson (as a solo performer).

TRANSITION

Cates to Step Down: Producer-director Gilbert Cates, in his seventh year as dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, has informed his colleagues that he will leave that post at the end of the 1996-97 school year. He said he will continue his relationship with UCLA as artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse and will remain a full professor. He said he has spoken with Chancellor Charles E. Young, who has agreed to conduct a nationwide search to fill the position by the summer of 1997. Cates said he will stay longer if a replacement is not found by then and he also would be agreeable to remaining as associate dean to help with fund-raising during a transition period. Cates produced six consecutive Academy Awards telecasts during his UCLA tenure, and also has continued with other producing and directing projects. He said he will return more actively to producing and directing. “The school is in strong shape,” he said in a letter to a prestigious industry advisory board that he recruited, “and I believe the time has come to plan for the future.”

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Opera Director Departing: Also stepping down will be David DiChiera, general director of Opera Pacific since its inception in 1987. He will leave as soon as a successor is named, an action expected soon. According to a spokesperson for the company--which stages operas, mostly from the standard repertoire, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center--three candidates have been interviewed and a front-runner is expected to emerge after a board meeting today. The board also is expected to announce a restructuring of the company with DiChiera, 61, staying on in some advisory capacity, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson said DiChiera will return to running the Michigan Opera Theater, which he founded in 1971 in Detroit. DiChiera had overseen a third company, Dayton Opera, but in 1991 he decided to focus on the other two. Opera Pacific has an annual budget of about $5 million and for most of its history has run in the black. But, recently, ticket sales have been slow and the company is facing a deficit of about $700,000. Its new season begins Saturday at the center with Puccini’s “Turandot.”

MOVIES

‘Vertigo’ Schedule: Universal Pictures’ newly restored version of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic “Vertigo” will open in eight cities next month, starting with a world premiere in New York Oct. 6, the studio announced Wednesday. The Los Angeles premiere, a benefit for the American Film Institute and the Film Foundation, will take place Oct. 14 at the Cineplex Odeon Century City Cinemas and the film then will start a run Oct. 16 at the GCC Avco Center cinema. James Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes star in the thriller, which will be presented for the first time in 70 millimeter and DTS digital sound following a two-year restoration project. The rarely seen Novak is expected to attend gala premieres in five cities, including L.A., the studio said.

QUICK TAKES

Sales last week of slain rapper Tupac Shakur’s latest album, “All Eyez on Me,” more than tripled those of the previous week, with the two-disc album selling about 56,000 copies during the week ending Sunday, according to SoundScan. Shakur, who recorded under the name 2Pac, died Friday, six days after being shot in Las Vegas. Shakur’s 1995 album, “Me Against the World,” sold 12,000 copies last week, up 10,000 from the previous week. (See related story, main news sections.) . . . ABC announced that “NYPD Blue” will premiere Oct. 15 at 10 p.m. . . . “Roseanne” will air its 200th episode on Oct. 1. The show involves a fantasy sequence, with Hugh Hefner and Jerry Springer guest-starring as themselves. . . . A spokesman for comedian Martin Lawrence, star of Fox TV’s “Martin,” said he was filing for divorce from his wife, Patricia, and “his primary concern is the welfare of his daughter, age 8 months, whose whereabouts remain unknown to the actor.” . . . Pepperdine University has made the upcoming TV movie “She Cried No,” about date rape, mandatory viewing for incoming freshman. The movie, which stars Candace Cameron Bure of “Full House,” airs next Monday. . . . Retired “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson traveled to a Norfolk, Neb., nursing home to help his grade school penmanship teacher celebrate her 100th birthday Monday. For years, Carson told Faye Gordon he would visit her on her 100th birthday, but Carson’s arrival still was a surprise for Miss Gordon. “Johnny coming for my birthday was a real gift,” she said.