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

POP/ROCK

Rock’s Sad Tally: A record 19 people, 13 of them teenagers, died at rock concerts and festival events worldwide in 1997, according to a Chicago-based crowd safety consulting firm. “Every year concert fans needlessly die or are injured in the United States and around the world as a direct result of negligent or deficient concert planning and management,” Crowd Management Strategies said in its annual report issued Monday. The total number of reported concert and festival deaths has steadily increased since 1992, when the firm documented one death in its first survey. The report found that festival seating--a concert business practice of selling tickets without assigned seats--continued to be a leading cause of crowd-crush deaths and injuries; moshing, a form of wild dancing near the stage, was also cited and in fact directly blamed for three of the deaths. Brazil had the highest tally of deaths with seven, all at one heavy-metal concert where a hand rail collapsed when thousands of concert-goers used the same exit ramp. Peru had five reported deaths, followed by the United States with three, Germany with two and Italy and England with one each.

TELEVISION

Life After ‘Larry’: Three-time Emmy nominee Jeffrey Tambor has lined up his post-”Larry Sanders Show” job. Tambor, who wraps up filming on the sixth and final season of HBO’s “Sanders” this week, will segue into a principal role on the upcoming CBS sitcom “Me & George,” starring Melanie Griffith. He will play Marty Zane, the owner of a New York publicity firm where Griffith’s character works. The series is scheduled to premiere next fall. Tambor’s deal includes a commitment from CBS for at least one television movie.

‘South Park’ Sound: American Recordings will release a series of “soundtrack” albums based on Comedy Central’s cable TV hit “South Park.” The first album is due this fall; various artists are being considered for the recordings, which will aim to “integrate music and comedy reflecting the admittedly twisted sensibility of the series.”

MOVIES

La Couer De La Catalog: The J. Peterman company has produced its own version of the “Titanic” jewel, “La Couer de Mer” (Heart of the Ocean), and will sell the replica necklaces through its catalog for $198. Each necklace contains 136 hand-set Australian Crystal stones surrounding a 75-carat faux sapphire.

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‘High Street Tinseltown’: Saying that it wishes to “send a big message to Hollywood that we are not a quaint film suburb but a big block on High Street Tinseltown,” the British government told London’s Express newspaper Sunday that it will open a UK Film Office in Hollywood in the near future. Culture Secretary Chris Smith said the new U.S. office hoped to ensure that such hits as “The Full Monty”--which was up for four Oscars in Monday’s awards--were not just one-time wonders.

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French Fare: Six French films, including five new pictures and a rare color print screening of Jacques Tati’s 1949 film “Jour de Fe^te,” will be screened as part of the second annual festival, “City of Lights, City of Angels: A Week of New French Films,” April 28-May 2 at the Directors Guild Theater in West Hollywood. Additional films to be screened include the swashbuckling comedy “En Garde” from writer-director Philippe de Broca, starring Vincent Perez; “The Life of Jesus,” director Bruno Dumont’s tale of the damaging effects of cultural racism on youths in a small town; “Dry Cleaning,” directed by Anne Fontaine and featuring newcomer Stanislaus Merhar, who won a Cesar award for his performance; “Just for a Laugh,” a romantic comedy directed by Lucas Belvaux; and “The Cousin,” director Alain Corneau’s dark tale of a friendship between a cop and a drug-dealing informer.

QUICK TAKES

Singer Sarah McLachlan picked up four honors at the 27th annual Juno Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Grammys, held Sunday in Vancouver. McLachlan’s wins included album of the year (for “Surfacing”) and single of the year (“Building a Mystery”). Also at the awards, composer-producer David Foster was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. . . . Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain and Aretha Franklin will unite for “Divas Live--an Honors Concert for VH1 Save the Music,” to be shown April 14 on cable’s VH1. The show will be taped at New York’s Beacon Theater; the event aims to raise funds and awareness for music education in public schools. . . . Actor Richard Gere met in New Delhi on Monday with six Tibetans entering their third week of a hunger strike to demand a U.N. investigation of human rights violations in China. “The six human beings represent 6 million Tibetans,” the actor, a longtime supporter of Tibetan rights, told reporters. “They have pledged to die, and I sincerely believe that they are going to die.” . . . A&E;’s “Biography” will profile Jerry Seinfeld on May 11. . . . The stage hit “Ragtime” will kick off its final week at Los Angeles’ Shubert Theatre with a signed performance for the hearing impaired on April 7. . . . Actress Zoe Caldwell, who starred in the Mark Taper Forum’s 1995 production of “Master Class,” will return to the Taper on May 18 in “Come A-Waltzing With Me,” a one-night benefit for the Taper’s Youth program P.L.A.Y. . . . The American Cinematheque on Wednesday will announce the launch of a $12.8-million fund-raising campaign to complete the group’s renovation of the historic Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.