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

MOVIES

AFI Honors: The American Film Institute will honor the late director Louis Malle with a tribute Oct. 28 as part of the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival. The tribute, co-presented by the Colbert Foundation and the French Hollywood Circle, will be held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills and will be attended by Malle’s widow, Candice Bergen, and his brother, Vincent Malle. The event will include a screening of Malle’s acclaimed 1974 film, “Lacombe, Lucien.”

TELEVISION

Ratings Highlights: ABC’s “Spin City” lost about 10% of the audience from its lead-in, “Home Improvement,” on Tuesday and dropped 13% from its premiere ratings last week. The Michael J. Fox comedy still won its time period, though, attracting 23% of the available audience and 20.8 million viewers. ABC then attracted a mediocre 17% of the audience at 10 p.m. with a preview of its new drama “Relativity.” At 8 p.m., “Roseanne” and “Mad About You” tied, with 21% of the audience each, after the latter won their first go-round last week, becoming the first series ever to top a “Roseanne” season premiere. NBC’s new sitcom “Something So Right” also looked impressive at 8:30 p.m., retaining “Mad About You’s” audience level.

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More Stars Shining: Add John Ritter to the list of prime-time stars who may return to series television. CBS has confirmed a development deal with Ritter, who starred from 1977-84 in the ABC comedy “Three’s Company,” followed by “Hooperman” on ABC from 1987-89 and “Hearts Afire” on CBS from 1992-95. . . . ABC has signed filmmaker Ed Burns (“The Brothers McMullen,” “She’s the One”) and his brother Brian Burns to create their first TV series, a romantic comedy about two couples living in Queens, N.Y., targeted for next fall. The network recently signed a similar agreement with director Spike Lee.

POP/ROCK

First Lady to Rock the Vote: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the keynote speaker at 8000 Sunset Rocks the Vote, a benefit for Rock the Vote, the music industry’s get-out-the-vote effort, taking place tonight from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the 8000 Sunset Blvd. retail plaza. Scheduled performers include Exene Cervenka, the Ringling Sisters, Sugar Ray and former Mary’s Danish member Julie Ritter. Tickets are $20.

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Tupac Sales Surging: Sales of Tupac Shakur’s “All Eyez on Me” album continue to rise in the wake of the rapper’s shooting death. The two-disc collection, released in February, sold about 76,000 copies last week, moving up 12 spots to No. 6 on the national album chart, according to SoundScan. Shakur’s single, “How Do U Want It/California Love,” sold 69,000 copies, jumping to No. 3 on the singles chart. Celine Dion’s “Falling Into You” (132,000 copies) was the nation’s best-selling album last week, topping New Edition’s “Home Again” (120,000 copies) and R.E.M.’s “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” (107,000).

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A Squeeze for Weezer: “Pinkerton,” a new album by the band Weezer, went on sale Tuesday, but by Wednesday, stores were already being asked to remove it from their shelves after an Encino-based security firm named Pinkerton Inc. obtained a temporary restraining order against the recording’s sales, saying that the band was trying to capitalize on the company’s reputation. A Geffen spokesman said, however, that the album was named after a character in Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly,” and was merely a case of Weezer singer Rivers Cuomo “paying homage to an inspiration, and hoping to enlighten a few fans in the process.” Pinkerton seeks $2 million in damages and a court order barring sales or advertising of the “Pinkerton” album. Meanwhile, Weezer performs tonight at the Whisky.

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Love Vows Action: Rocker Courtney Love said she plans to take legal action to have items associated with her late husband Kurt Cobain pulled from this weekend’s celebrity auction at Newport Beach’s Executive Collectibles Gallery. The items include a bride and groom snow globe purported to have been used on the couple’s wedding cake, a signed discharge slip from a drug rehab facility, and an empty prescription pill bottle. Love, who is disturbed that some news reports have implied that she is responsible for selling off the items, which are offered anonymously, told The Times Wednesday that whoever provided the items has no rights to sell them: “In a million years, no one in my family would do such a vile thing--I’m completely disgusted.” The gallery said Wednesday, however, that it had not yet been contacted by Love.

QUICK TAKES

Miramax Films on Friday will re-release Ted Demme’s ensemble movie “Beautiful Girls,” which originally came out in February. The move is timed to increase the film’s box-office take and to give an Oscar push to the screenplay and the performance of Natalie Portman, a critical favorite. . . . Latin singing sensation Luis Miguel gets his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, during 11:30 a.m. ceremonies at 7050 Hollywood Blvd. On Sunday, Miguel will be in Las Vegas to tape the star-studded ABC special, “Caesars Palace: A 30th Anniversary Celebration,” scheduled to air in November. . . . Johnny Cash’s scheduled Oct. 4 concert at the Greek Theatre has been postponed until sometime in 1997. A spokeswoman for Cash’s record company, American, said the Los Angeles date will be timed to follow the release of his upcoming album, “Unchained,” which is due to hit stores Nov. 5. . . . Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas are the parents of a baby girl, Stella del Carmen Banderas Griffith, born Tuesday night in a Spanish hospital. The child is Griffith’s third, Banderas’ first.