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

MOVIES

Million Moviegoer March: The National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts and Latin Heat magazine have announced the formation of the Premiere Weekend Club, aimed at boosting positive portrayals of Latinos in Hollywood films. “We need Latinos to vote their pocketbooks in support of Latino-themed projects,” said Jimmy Smits, Emmy-winning actor and co-founder of the foundation. The club has set a goal of enlisting 1 million members by the end of the year who will attend on opening weekend showing of any film that the organization endorses. The National Council of La Raza, the umbrella group for most U.S. Latino organizations, is assisting in recruitment.

MUSIC

Receiving the Gold Baton: Ernest Fleischmann, former vice president and managing director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, receives the American Symphony Orchestra League’s 1998 Gold Baton in San Francisco today, for lifetime achievements in the orchestra field. Composer John Adams will present the award. Past recipients of the baton, the league’s highest honor, include Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Isaac Stern. For nearly 50 years, Fleischmann has been active as a musician, conductor, recording executive and arts administrator, including a stint as general manager of the London Symphony Orchestra. Fleischmann, 74, who left the Philharmonic in February 1998, is now artistic director of the Ojai Festival and a consultant to symphony orchestras.

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Tyson, the Magnet: Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, currently jailed in Maryland, has struck a deal with the Def Jam record label to lend his name to a new music venture, a spokeswoman for Def Jam confirmed Friday. Def Jam President Lyor Cohen, who describes Tyson as “a magnet for talent,” announced through the spokeswoman that Tyson Records will feature rap and R&B; acts, and has already signed teen singers Doni and Centrell. The often-troubled Tyson was sentenced in February to a year in jail for assaulting a pair of Maryland motorists.

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Pavarotti’s Pals: Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey are among the performers set for Luciano Pavarotti’s annual “Pavarotti and Friends” benefit in his hometown of Modena, Italy. Others scheduled for the June 1 show at Modena’s 15,000-seat stadium, organizers say, are B.B. King, Boy Zone and Ricky Martin. Proceeds will go to needy children in Guatemala.

ATTRACTIONS

Titanic Twice: A $7 million, 25,000-square-foot “Titanic--Ship of Dreams” opens today in Orlando, Fla., combining 200 artifacts and memorabilia, including a costume worn by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie blockbuster “Titanic” . . . In Los Angeles, movie posters of DiCaprio now cover the walls of the computer center at the new Los Feliz Branch Library, built on land where the actor’s family home once stood. The Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center contains seven terminals with software to help students with math, language and study skills, a library spokesman said. DiCaprio and his family, longtime residents of the Los Feliz neighborhood, donated $35,000 to fund the computer center.

QUICK TAKES

Annual auditions for the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts will be held at the school Sunday and April 25; 184 openings are available this fall for applicants from all five L.A.-area counties. . . . Los Angeles Opera General Director Peter Hemmings, set to retire and return to his native England in June 2000, has been appointed to the board of directors of London’s prestigious Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. . . . There will be a concert tonight at 8 by Hiroshima, the Asian Pacific American jazz fusion ensemble, at the Japan America Theatre in Little Toyko.