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

TELEVISION

Creative ‘Milestones’: The Museum of Television & Radio has partnered with Paramount TV’s “Entertainment Tonight” to present a monthly made-for-TV film series at the Beverly Hills museum celebrating “milestones in television’s creative history.” The first movie, to be shown throughout October, is 1971’s “Duel” (it was later shown in theaters), which helped put director Steven Spielberg on the map. The November film is “That Certain Summer” (1972), which starred Hal Holbrook in one of TV’s first explorations of homosexuality’s affect on families. Other films in the series--which will screen Wednesdays through Fridays at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m., accompanied by occasional seminars--include George Cukor’s “Love Among the Ruins” (December) and Lee Remick and Jill Clayburgh in “Hustling” (January).

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Showtime Slate: Cable’s Showtime on Friday announced a slate of six new film projects, including “Naked City,” a three-movie series based on the 1948 Oscar-winning classic, with Scott Glenn and Courtney Vance starring this time as officers in the NYPD’s Anti-Crime Unit. Among the other upcoming Showtime movies: “Girls’ Night,” starring Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn (in her first film since “Secrets & Lies”) and Julie Walters in the tale of two British factory workers who head to Las Vegas after one is diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer; “The Baby Dance,” based on Jane Anderson’s 1991 Pasadena Playhouse production about a well-to-do couple who contract with a poor pregnant woman to adopt her baby, starring Stockard Channing and Laura Dern and executive-produced by Jodie Foster; and “The Passion of Ayn Rand,” starring Helen Mirren (“Prime Suspect”) as the author in a tale of her 15-year affair with a younger man and her friendship with the man’s wife.

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Head Over Cliff: “Head Over Heels,” the UPN comedy about a South Beach dating service run by two bickering brothers, has become the first casualty of the new fall TV season. The network announced that it would not extend the show past its original 13-episode order. Insiders said the Tuesday night comedy was a victim of poor ratings, and that newly named UPN head Dean Valentine was not happy with the series’ direction. A final air date for has not been determined.

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Ratings Fall-Out: The president of the National Cable Television Assn. has written to NBC President Bob Wright complaining about Wright’s “mudslinging” comments about the way cable-TV programmers apply ratings to their shows. “NBC certainly has the right to take the position it’s taken on TV ratings, but it’s not necessary to throw things at other networks to try to deflect criticism,” NCTA President Decker Anstrom told The Times. In a letter responding to criticism in Washington against NBC’s decision not to add content designations, Wright had called NBC’s age-based ratings “more rigorous than those on many cable networks” and had criticized a made-for-TV cable movie--rated TV-14--that contained “nudity, vulgar language and gratuitous violence.” “NBC would never allow that type of programming,” Wright wrote. The movie in question, Showtime’s “The Gold Coast,” carried the network’s on-air advisories about nudity and violence, Showtime executives said.

POP/ROCK

Janet Online: Janet Jackson will take questions via the Internet Monday as part of an appearance on “MTV Live.” Although the show is seen live on the East Coast, it airs tape delayed here, meaning that Internet participants must go on-line from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., without the accompanying cable TV broadcast. The hourlong show--previewing four tracks from Jackson’s new album “The Velvet Rope”--will then be seen here at 5:30 p.m. MTV Online can be accessed via the Web (https://www.mtv.com) or America Online (Keyword: MTV).

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Triumph and Challenge in Chicago: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra opened the doors to its refurbished performance hall Friday, though the ribbon-cutting was clouded by snagged labor talks with its musicians. During the outdoor reopening ceremony for the $110-million refurbishment, orchestra president Henry Fogel told the crowd he would be “remiss” not to mention the contract negotiations, but said he was “optimistic” about the outcome. The previous contract expired Sept. 14, but the orchestra has continued to rehearse and stage minor performances.

QUICK TAKES

Several entertainment unions, including the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists, the National Academy of Songwriters and the Writers Guild of America, West have written to Gov. Pete Wilson urging him to veto Assembly Bill 701, which would allow cities, including Los Angeles, access to confidential state tax information. Among the guilds’ oppositions: the fear that the release of home addresses and other information about celebrities could lead to future “stalking incidents” by paparazzi or crazed fans. . . . “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” star Melissa Joan Hart will be at the Glendale Toys “R” Us store (2905 Los Feliz Blvd.) today from noon to 2 p.m. to introduce a new line of dolls based on the TV show. . . . Starting Monday, TV Guide Online (www.tvguide.com/tv) will begin taking questions for “The X-Files” star David Duchovny in anticipation of the Fox show’s Nov. 2 season premiere. The site will gather queries for two to three weeks, then post Duchovny’s selected answers.