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

POP/ROCK

Brits Thirsty for Oasis: Oasis, the English rock group that has frequently compared itself to the Beatles, released its third album to a clamorous welcome in its homeland Thursday amid predictions it will become the biggest seller in U.K. music history. Lines of fans waited outside record stores and supermarkets to be among the first to pick up “Be Here Now,” which music industry insiders believe has a good chance of overtaking the all-time sales leader, the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which has sold about 4.5 million copies in the U.K. since it was released in 1967. “It’s massive--I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Andy Macindoe, general manager of the HMV Trocadero record store in London. “It’s outselling everything I’ve ever seen.” The collection, featuring singer Liam Gallagher and guitarist-songwriter Noel Gallagher, will be released in the United States on Tuesday.

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New Hendrix Album: “South Saturn Delta,” a new studio album composed of previously unavailable tracks by the late Jimi Hendrix, will be released Oct. 7 by MCA Records/Experience Hendrix. The album contains 15 songs spanning the legendary guitarist’s career, from Olympic Studios in London to Hendrix’s own Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Among the tracks are an instrumental version of “Little Wing,” “Here He Comes (Lover Man),” “Message to the Universe (Message to Love)” and a solo version of “Midnight Lightning.”

TELEVISION

Soap Stars to Invade Suburbia: NBC and Soap Opera Digest magazine are teaming up for the second annual “Behind the Scenes With Soap Opera Digest” mall tour, which kicks off Sept. 6 in San Diego and continues for five consecutive weekends. The mall tour, which will reach Santa Anita Fashion Park the weekend of Sept. 13-14, will feature exclusive personal appearances by the network’s hottest male stars from the popular and top-rated daytime dramas “Days of Our Lives,” “Another World” and “Sunset Beach.” Scheduled to appear at Santa Anita: Peter Reckell, who plays Bo Brady on “Days of Our Lives,” and Eddie Cibrian, who plays Cole Deschanel on “Sunset Beach.”

PEOPLE WATCH

Seymour Ill in Puerto Rico: Jane Seymour, star of CBS’ “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” has come down with dengue fever in Puerto Rico, where she is working on a movie remake of “Swiss Family Robinson,” her publicist said Thursday. “It was a fluke thing. Of all the cast and crew, she’s the only one who has it,” spokesman Dick Guttman said. The virus, transmitted by mosquitoes, results in fever, vomiting, rash, severe headaches and body aches. Her life was never in danger, Guttman said. “She’s had a very, very rough time of it. But she’s past the bad part of it now,” he said. Moviemakers worked around the illness and the film’s schedule has been extended a week while Seymour recuperates.

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Frankfurt Flocks to Riefenstahl Exhibition: Photographs by Leni Riefenstahl, whose notorious Nazi-era films (“Olympia” and “Triumph of the Will”) are considered masterpieces of propaganda, are finally being exhibited in her native Germany. The exhibition of 50 photographs by Riefenstahl, whose controversial past made German galleries and museums wary of showing her works, is drawing large crowds to the private gallery of Andreas Schlueter in Frankfurt--and protests from those who say her pictures glorify the Nazis. Riefenstahl, who turns 95 today, has long irked critics with her continuing admiration of Adolf Hitler, whom she met after a 1932 Nazi rally.

QUICK TAKES

In case you missed it the first time--or want to see it again--ABC will repeat the much-discussed “coming-out” episode of “Ellen” on Sept. 3. . . . L.A. radio personalities Stephanie Miller of KTZN-AM and commentator Arianna Huffington will fill in as co-hosts for cable channel CNBC’s “Equal Time” today at 5 p.m. . . . Former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Luke Perry has signed a deal to develop a series at ABC. . . . The arrival of two new late-night syndicated talk shows, “Vibe” and “The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show,” doesn’t seem to have hurt NBC’s “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” With CBS’ David Letterman in repeats last week, Leno averaged 6.8 million viewers, his show’s best results since January, according to Nielsen Media Research. . . . Hammer has sold his Bay Area hillside mansion to a Singapore-based communications satellite company for $5.3 million. The rapper, who declared bankruptcy last year, has moved to less ostentatious digs. . . . Fox is holding a father-and-son look-alike contest tied to its animated series “King of the Hill.” The tandem looking the most like Hank and Bobby Hill will be brought to Los Angeles to attend the show’s season-premiere party. . . . Cable’s E! Entertainment Television will examine the life of Brandon Lee--the actor son of the late Bruce Lee--who was killed at age 28 during a 1993 accident on the set of the movie “The Crow.” “Brandon Lee: The E! True Hollywood Story” will be seen Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. . . . A stage musical version of the movie “Footloose” will play at the Orange County Performing Arts Center July 14-19, written by the film’s writer, Dean Pitchford, with music by Tom Snow. It will be directed and co-adapted by Walter Bobbie, who staged Broadway’s current “Chicago” revival.