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

POP/ROCK

The Wizard of Floyd: Recent media and Internet reports that Pink Floyd’s 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon” may be a secret soundtrack to the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz” have spawned a sales surge for the rock album, as buyers snapped up 18,000 copies last week, according to SoundScan, far surpassing the usual 7,100 to 7,400 in weekly sales. Sales for the movie’s video, which has fluctuated in popularity over the years, rose from 7,000 three weeks ago to just under 12,000 last week, according to VideoScan, with an even greater increase seen with video rentals. Among the similarities cited by soundtrack theory proponents: When you start playing the album at the MGM lion’s third roar, the song “The Great Gig in the Sky” plays during the tornado; the song “Brain Damage” accompanies the Scarecrow’s “If I Only Had a Brain,” and a cash register sounds when the film switches from black-and-white to color. The band has not commented on the reports, but album engineer Alan Parsons has said the whole thing is coincidental.

TV/MOVIES

Millennium Projects: CBS News and Time magazine will collaborate on “People of the Century: The Time 100,” a two-year series of hourlong prime-time TV broadcasts and magazine issues focusing on “100 people who shaped the past 100 years.” The series, culminating with the naming of a “Man or Woman of the Century,” will begin in March 1998. . . . NBC, meanwhile, will mark the end of the 20th century with “Millennium Moments,” a yearlong series looking at “the events that have shaped world history,” including inventions, major sports events and the work of explorers, world rulers and entertainers. “Millennium Moments” will begin on Jan. 1, 1999.

Little House on the Screen: Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s nine “Little House” books for a feature film to be written by two-time Academy Award winner Horton Foote (“To Kill a Mockingbird”). Ed Friendly, creator of the long-running “Little House on the Prairie” TV series, will executive produce the family movie.

QUICK TAKES

The American Film Institute recognized producer Quincy Jones’ lifetime achievements in film on Wednesday by presenting him with an honorary doctorate during AFI’s annual commencement ceremony. . . . A federal judge threw out five of seven counts Wednesday in a religious discrimination suit filed against filmmaker Arthur Hiller by a former personal assistant, Zvi Gal, who alleges he was fired after one day of work for making religious statements. Hiller, who is president of the motion picture academy, was out of the country and could not be reached.