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

ART

Van Gogh All-Nighters: The L.A. County Museum of Art will keep its Van Gogh exhibition open for 63 straight hours on its closing weekend to meet the demand for tickets. Citing “astounding” public demand, “Van Gogh’s Van Goghs: Masterpieces From the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam” will be open continuously from 9 a.m. May 14 through its permanent closing at midnight May 16, museum officials said Tuesday. Adult admission, normally $17.50 to $20, will be reduced to $10 for the midnight-to-7 a.m. time periods. Also for the final weekend, LACMA will open a “Club Van Gogh” with a cash bar and music from 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday and from 5 p.m. to midnight Sunday. LACMA President Andrea Rich noted that more than 600,000 visitors have already seen the exhibition, adding, “The extended hours . . . are one way LACMA is saying thank you to Los Angeles for making ‘Van Gogh’ the most successful art exhibition here in more than 20 years.”

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It’s All Greek to Met: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art reopened its main Greek art galleries Tuesday after three years and $75 million worth of renovations that transformed the dark and dusty rooms into a polished, sun-washed space. The reopening marked the second in a three-stage, decade-long plan to renovate and reorganize the museum’s Greek and Roman galleries, which began with the 1996 opening of a hall for prehistoric and early Greek art.

MOVIES

Stephen King Going 3D: Imax Corp. plans to make a 3D version of Stephen King’s bestselling novella “The Sun Dog” for Imax’s giant-screen theaters. Production is expected to begin in early 2000, with Lawrence D. Cohen, who adapted King’s “Carrie,” writing the screenplay. “The Sun Dog” tells the story of a teenage boy who receives an instant camera that takes eerie photos capturing another dimension.

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At least These Waters Were Warmer: “Titanic” heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio had a real-life emergency at sea when he was forced to jump overboard after a storm caused high waves to flood his boat during filming of his latest project, “The Beach.” “[DiCaprio and his co-stars] were literally in the water for four minutes before rescue boats arrived,” a 20th Century Fox spokesman said Tuesday, noting that reports that had DiCaprio swimming for his life from sharks were fabricated. Other reports on the incident, which occurred Friday but was first reported Tuesday, had also erroneously said that DiCaprio had to keep himself afloat for more than 30 minutes before help arrived.

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Politics, Cannes Style?: Accusing the event’s organizers of political bias, China’s controversial filmmaker Zhang Yimou said Tuesday that he is pulling two movies from next month’s Cannes Film Festival. In a letter published on the front page of the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper, Zhang attacked Western critics for preferring Chinese films that are disliked by the Chinese government. “It seems that in the West there are always two ‘political criteria’ when interpreting Chinese films, either ‘anti-government’ or ‘representing government propaganda,’ ” Zhang wrote in the open letter addressed to festival director Gilles Jacob. “This is unacceptable.” Both films being pulled by Zhang--”Not One Less” and “My Mother and Father”--have been approved by China’s strict movie censorship machine, which has previously banned several of Zhang’s films, with those banned films having gone on to win critical acclaim overseas. Last year, Zhang ran into trouble with Chinese authorities when he submitted his banned film “Keep Cool” to the Venice Film Festival without authorization.

POP/ROCK

And Then There Were Two: Citing conflicting testimony from witnesses and police, Compton prosecutors have dropped charges that Wu-Tang Clan rapper ODB made threats against the mother of his child after she refused to return child support money that he paid her. However, the rapper, whose real name is Russell Tyrone Jones, still faces court hearings on separate, unrelated charges in Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

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Gospel Hall of Famers: Six gospel music groups--the Cathedral Quartet, Fairfield Four, Florida Boys, Gaither Trio, Mighty Clouds of Joy and Second Chapter of Acts--will be inducted into the Gospel Music Assn.’s Hall of Fame today as the culmination of the group’s Gospel Music Week conference in Nashville. Also being inducted into the hall are evangelist Billy Graham and musician George Younce, bassist for Cathedral Quartet.

QUICK TAKES

San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre has cast former “Roseanne” star John Goodman for the lead role in the Irish comedy “The Hostage,” scheduled for Sept. 19-Oct. 31. Goodman previously won raves for his role as Falstaff is the Globe’s 1995 production of “Henry IV.” . . . CBS has scheduled “The Nanny’s” hourlong series finale for May 12. . . . Celebrity mom Betty DeGeneres will be at Book Soup in West Hollywood tonight for a 6 p.m. book signing and reception for her new tome, “Love, Ellen.” Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche are also expected to attend. . . . Basketball star Dennis Rodman gives his first broadcast interview since being fired from the Lakers to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, airing in two parts today on “Good Morning America” (7-9 a.m.) and on “20/20 Wednesday” (10-11 p.m.). . . . Dancer-choreographer Ann Reinking will return to “Chicago,” joining the touring company in Boston next week (through May 16) to replace Sandy Duncan, who broke her foot during rehearsals.