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

POP/ROCK

Out of His Closet: Self-confessed “shopaholic” Elton John opened a London shop Friday where he hopes to sell Christmas shoppers 10,000 of his flamboyant designer outfits to raise money for AIDS-related causes. “If I have one addiction left in my life these days it is shopping,” confessed the rock star once famed for his platform heels and bejeweled glasses. “I just hope that the people who come to the new shop have as much fun buying the clothes as I did.” The items, billed as the ultimate “Glam Rock” gift, range from inexpensive shirts and ties to showpiece suits offered for up to $3,350. John, 50, said he spent $4 million to buy the clothing; he hopes the sale, which benefits the Elton John AIDS Foundation, will raise one-tenth that amount.

MOVIES

Much Bigger ‘Chill’?: When it debuted in 1983, director Lawrence Kasdan’s generation-defining film “The Big Chill” was warmly embraced by baby boomers. Now, in a wild spoof of the movie, a Madison, Wis., publication called the Onion writes that Columbia Pictures will re-release the film early next year in a “newly contextualized, digitally re-zeitgeisted format” to commemorate the film’s 15th anniversary. The parody goes on to say that the movie, which centers on a group of thirtysomethings struggling to cope with divorce, family responsibilities, lost youth and the fallout of the ‘60s, has been painstakingly remastered by Kasdan at a cost of $25 million to reflect the changes in baby boomers’ current obsessions and preoccupations. In the remastered version, according to the Onion, there will be new references to “crack, AIDS and the Internet; a Jeff Goldblum-Kevin Kline feud over money markets; and an updated soundtrack that replaces the original’s Motown fare with adult-alternative, roots-rock hits by the likes of Sheryl Crow and the Wallflowers.” In one new scene, for example, Glenn Close and Mary Beth Hurt discuss menopause. The publication adds, tongue-in-cheek, that Columbia’s chairman “Walter Rheingold” held a press conference at which he announced that “The Big Chill” was “the perfect choice” to be the first in a series of seminal motion pictures the studio will remaster using its state-of-the-art zeitgeisted technology. “When ‘The Big Chill’ hits theaters early next year,” he said, “people will be able to see not merely a dusted-off reprint of the original, but a rich new version that fully takes into account the characters’ changed perceptions about the world and their place in it. In 1983, ‘The Big Chill’ defined a generation. Now, thanks to the wonders of special effects, it will do it again.”

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‘Greatest’ Films?: The American Film Institute has put its list of 400 of the best American movies ever made on its Web site at https://www.afionline.org/100. It is the same list that will be submitted to 1,500 entertainment industry types to vote on “the 100 greatest American movies of all time.” The AFI selected the films based on critical recognition, historical significance, major award winners, popularity over time and cultural impact.

TELEVISION

Rediscovered Christmas Cheer: A lost TV classic, “The Story of Christmas” starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, has been found and restored and will get its first public screening in 30 years on Dec. 15 at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills. The program, which premiered on NBC in 1963, was the first network special aired without commercial interruptions. Buck Ford, the actor’s son, initiated the search for the lost program, which was eventually found in storage by Dale Sheets, the original agent that worked on the show. A spokesman for the Ford family said Sheets hopes to find an outlet to televise the program nationally in 1998. Scored by Roger Wagner, the hourlong special was written by author Charles Tazwell (“The Littlest Angel”), and features a filmed animation segment conceived by artist Eyvind Earle, who worked on “Sleeping Beauty” and “Fantasia.”

QUICK TAKES

Monday at 5 p.m. is the deadline to enter films for Academy Award consideration. Nominations will be announced Feb. 10. . . . Spin magazine has named the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. its 1997 Artist of the Year, the cover subject of its “The Year in Music” issue that hits newsstands Dec. 6. The flamboyant hip-hop star died in March at age 24, during a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. Spin also named his song, “Hypnotize,” single of the year. . . . The newly constructed Getty Center, which opens to the public on Dec. 16, will take part in Day Without Art, the arts world’s annual observance of World AIDS Day, by turning off all its lights for several minutes on Monday at 6:30 p.m. . . . Student and senior rush tickets to “When Casts Collide,” a World AIDS Day benefit performance by the casts of “Ragtime,” “Rent” and “Phantom of the Opera,” will be available for $25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Shubert Theatre box office. Regular tickets for the 7:30 p.m. event are $35, $55 and $75. . . . Cable’s Cartoon Network will add eight animated Warner Bros. series to its lineup in 1998: “Batman: The Animated Series,” “Beetlejuice,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” “Waynehead,” “Road Rovers,” “The All New Gumby,” “The Fantastic Voyages of Sinbad” and “Super Friends.” . . . Cable’s HBO will air “Stomp Out Loud,” a 45-minute TV special starring the hit percussion group Stomp, on Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. . . . Tony Danza will chat online on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at https://www.chat.yahoo.com. His NBC series, “The Tony Danza Show,” returns to the lineup the following night at 8:30.