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

MOVIES

Headed to the Screen: Rock manager Arnold Stiefel, who snapped up the movie rights to John Berendt’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” before the book was even published, has a new project: He’s just bought the rights to Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne’s best-selling take on the O.J. Simpson trial, “Another City, Not My Own: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir.” There is no studio attached to the $1-million deal, and Stiefel, who manages singers Rod Stewart and Scott Weiland, among others, says he will proceed slowly with Dunne’s book rather than rush it to the screen. “I see [the movie] as a total comedy in the vein of [the Nicole Kidman movie] ‘To Die For,’ ” he said. “It’s not about O.J., the murder or the trial but about . . . all these things that happen in the city outside of the trial.”

MUSIC & DANCE

L.A. Russian Ballet Plans Revived: Jump-started by a possible major Asian funding initiative, the previously announced--and then indefinitely postponed--plans for a local professional Russian-style ballet company have been revived. And Oleg Vinogradov, artistic director of St. Petersburg’s Kirov Ballet, is again heading the nascent company. Negotiations this week were aimed at creating the company in time for “Nutcracker” performances in Pasadena next Christmas as well as for a number of smaller-scale appearances starting this summer. Besides Vinogradov, the project would reportedly enlist Yuri Grigorovich, the former artistic director of Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, bringing together the two most powerful and controversial figures in Russian classicism.

Philharmonic Changes: Two conductors will fill in for the indisposed Austrian musician Franz Welser-Most at L.A. Philharmonic concerts Friday through Jan. 25. Alexander Treger will conduct previously announced Dvorak and Beethoven selections Friday through Jan. 18 in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony to be replaced by Tchaikovsky’s Fifth. Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer will take the podium Jan. 22 through 25, with Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, the “Prague,” and Seven Movements from Kodaly’s “Hary Janos” being added to the previously scheduled Mozart’s Concerto in C, K. 314.

TELEVISION

Ready for No. 4?: Citing irreconcilable differences, Roseanne filed for divorce Thursday from her third husband, former bodyguard Ben Thomas. According to court papers, the couple separated on New Year’s Eve, one day before police ordered Thomas to leave the couple’s Mulholland Drive home after he reportedly broke a lamp and a window during an argument with the entertainer. Thomas was not arrested, although an LAPD spokesman said an investigation into the incident has been forwarded to the city attorney’s office. The couple were married on Valentine’s Day 1995; in the divorce petition, Roseanne, who will be in New Orleans next week pitching her forthcoming talk show to television executives, has requested custody of their 2-year-old son, with supervised visitation for Thomas.

‘Vibe’ Goes On: The late-night show “Vibe,” which was shut down Thursday after eight people were injured in the collapse of a bleacher railing, will resume its production schedule as planned Monday. The show--hosted by comedian Sinbad--was not scheduled to tape Friday, the day after the accident, which occurred when audience members surged forward to grab free Tupac Shakur CD singles and other items being tossed from the stage at CBS Television City. Production executives declined to speak further about the incident. Most of the victims were treated at local hospitals and released.

‘60 Minutes’ Suit: A large group of people who invested in papers that they maintain are letters from John F. Kennedy are suing CBS and “60 Minutes.” Lawrence Cusack Jr., who says he found the papers in the files of his late father, a onetime Kennedy lawyer, and others are upset about a “60 Minutes” story on the controversy over the letters’ authenticity. The lawsuit claims that handwriting experts used by CBS were pressured to say that the papers were bogus; CBS said it does not comment on pending litigation. Cusack and others have already filed related suits against ABC, New Yorker magazine, Vanity Fair and author Seymour Hersh, who, before the controversy surfaced, had planned to include the letters in his recent JFK book and in an ABC documentary.

QUICK TAKES

The Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana has added a third Merle Haggard date: Thursday, with shows at 7:30 and 10:15 p.m. A few tickets are still available for the country singer’s shows Monday and Tuesday. The performances are billed as the only Los Angeles-area stops on his farewell tour. . . . ABC News Vice President Jeff Gralnick is expected to be named to a new role as assistant to the president and chairman of ABC News. Gralnick will oversee the move of “Good Morning America” to an outdoor studio and will be in charge of special news projects. . . . KTLA-TV Channel 5 anchor-reporter Michele Ruiz has left the station after more than six years to “pursue other opportunities.” Her spokeswoman said several projects are in the works, but she would not be specific. KTLA has not yet named her replacement.