ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

POP/ROCK

Garth, Meet Roger Maris: Does Garth Brooks get an asterisk next to his name in the music history books? On Wednesday, we learned that the country music superstar’s new album, “Double Live,” enjoyed the best week of sales in history by selling 1.08 million copies, but now it appears he got a big boost from a tweaking of the national album sales tally. Here’s why: Until last week, sales reports from several mass merchandise chains, including Wal-Mart and Kmart, ended on Friday, rather than the Sunday cut-off day used by other music retailers. According to Mike Shalett of SoundScan, which tracks sales for the music industry, “new, better technology” put into place last week helped the retail chains speed up their sales reports, thus giving Brooks (and everyone else on the charts) two days of sales at those stores that would otherwise have been held over a week. Without the new system, Shalett said, Brooks would not have broken the 1 million mark--which means he would have fallen short of the one-week sales record of 1.06 million copies for Whitney Houston’s “The Bodyguard,” set in December 1992. Wal-Mart and Kmart heavily promoted Brooks’ new album and took part in high-profile events to herald its arrival on their shelves. So was the timing of the new sales tracking system a little too convenient? Executives for the chains could not be reached Friday because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but Shalett said the change had been discussed for months. Shalett also shrugged off any controversy over Brooks’ new sales record, comparing it to modern sports achievements: “Do you not count a record set by [today’s athletes] against the old ones because now they have faster shoes?”

STAGE

Bring In ‘Da Glover, Again: Savion Glover, who won a Tony for his choreography on “Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk,” will reportedly return to the Broadway production for its final month at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in New York, from Dec. 8 to Jan. 10. Glover left the show in July 1997; his role was performed by Derick K. Grant when the production was staged at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre in April.

MOVIES

Welcome Home: American Cinematheque will open its new home at Hollywood’s historic Egyptian Theatre with a Dec. 4 gala featuring the world premiere of the restored original orchestra score--under the direction of acclaimed musicologist Gillian Anderson--for Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 silent classic, “The Ten Commandments.” Public screenings of the film and restored score, accompanied by a display of artifacts from the film’s original sets that were recently excavated after having been buried in the California desert for more than 70 years, will run Dec. 5 through 8.

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Support Between the Sexes: Women in Film--marking the last event of the group’s 25th anniversary year on Dec. 3--will for the first time honor the men in the entertainment industry who have supported female counterparts in their efforts to achieve success in movies and television. Receiving the inaugural “Women in Film Mentor Awards” during ceremonies at Los Angeles’ Park Plaza Hotel are MGM Chairman Frank Mancuso Sr., film and TV producer Edgar J. Scherick, Universal Pictures Chairman Casey Silver, director Steven Spielberg and Jim Wiatt, co-chairman of the talent agency ICM. A posthumous Mentor Award will be presented to actor-director John Cassavetes, with his widow, actress Gena Rowlands, set to accept.

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More Kudos: The American Foundation for AIDS Research honors Barbara Walters, Tom Hanks and Arista Records founder Clive Davis for their humanitarian efforts during ceremonies in New York Monday. . . . Billy Crystal will receive the American Friends of the Hebrew University’s 1999 Scopus Award on Jan. 28 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Previous honorees--all lauded for their contributions to the Jewish community--include Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand. . . . Screenwriter Paul Schrader (“Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation of Christ”) will receive the Writers Guild’s highest honor, the Laurel Award for Screen, during the group’s annual award ceremonies Feb. 20 at the Beverly Hilton. Past recipients include Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Billy Wilder. . . . Filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant (“The Remains of the Day,” “Howards End,” “A Room With a View”) will receive the inaugural Creative Achievement Award from the Creative Alliance, which aims to foster “integrity and quality” in media, on Dec. 6 at Duet restaurant in Westwood.

QUICK TAKES

This Monday through Friday, KABC-AM (790) will pair former Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates with “interim” morning-drive host Marc “Mr. KABC” Germain on the 5-9 a.m. show. Los Angeles Times columnist Mike Downey will co-host with Germain Dec. 7-11. . . . Spenser, the private-eye character from Robert B. Parker’s novels that begat the Robert Urich series “Spenser: For Hire,” is headed to the TV movie realm, portrayed this time around by Joe Mantegna (“The Last Don”). The movie, “Small Vices,” will air on cable’s A&E; sometime next year. Urich is now the captain of UPN’s “Love Boat: The Next Wave.” . . . Speaking of which, UPN has picked up three of its dramas--”Love Boat: The Next Wave,” “Legacy” and “7 Days”--for the remainder of the season. . . . “Comedy Central Presents,” a new weekly stand-up comedy series, premieres on the cable channel Tuesday at 10 p.m.