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

TV & MOVIES

Bratt Bolts: “Law & Order” star Benjamin Bratt is the latest actor to turn the revolving door on the hit NBC cops-and-court drama, which has survived nine cast changes since 1990. Bratt, who has played Det. Reynaldo Curtis for four seasons, is exiting “Law & Order” at the end of the season, and will be replaced by Jesse L. Martin, who currently plays Ally McBeal’s love interest on Fox’s “Ally McBeal.” The announcement comes less than a week before “Law & Order’s” 200th episode airs Wednesday, featuring a guest appearance by Bratt’s real-life girlfriend, Julia Roberts. “Law & Order” creator Dick Wolf said in an interview Thursday that Bratt “came to me several months ago and felt that he was at a certain stage in his career where certain opportunities were presenting themselves. I never like to hold an actor against their will, especially when they approach the situation in a professional manner.” Wolf added that he was thrilled with the replacement of Martin, saying his joining the cast “offers an unparalleled opportunity to further grow the show.” Bratt’s character will leave the series in a two-part episode starting May 26 in which Curtis makes the painful decision to leave the New York Police Department in order to care for his ailing wife and their three young daughters.

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Comedic Father: Jonathan Winters will receive the second annual Mark Twain Prize during the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ “Celebration of American Humor,” Oct. 20 in New York (with the festivities to air on Comedy Central in January). In an announcement of the Twain Prize--given to those who “create humor from their uniquely American experiences”--organizers credited Winters with changing “the nature of comedy” and paving “the way for his artistic children--people like Robin Williams, Gilda Radner, Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Martin Short and Tracey Ullman.” Comedian Richard Pryor was the Twain Prize’s inaugural recipient.

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Paying the Price: Chinese authorities have reportedly banned actress Joan Chen (“Heaven and Earth”) from working in the country because she directed a film, “Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl,” in rural western China last year without government permission. Though the film--a tale of youthful innocence lost--is said to be relatively mild in its political content, Zhou Jiandong, a senior Film Bureau official, told the New York Times that Chen “used abominable means to deceive the government” and “deliberately” violated regulations that require script approval and screening of the finished product for all films shot in China. As a result, Zhou said, Chen is banned indefinitely from working in the country and was fined $50,000. Chen, meanwhile, has withdrawn from a scheduled film project in Shanghai, saying, “There’s a price” for her actions, adding, “I don’t regret it.” “Xiu Xiu,” Chen’s directorial debut, is expected to open here sometime next month.

STAGE

Year of the ‘Dralion’: A new Cirque du Soleil production, “Dralion,” is scheduled to have its U.S. premiere in a tent at the Santa Monica Pier on Sept. 23, where it will run until moving to Orange County’s Irvine Spectrum Center on Dec. 2. The title “Dralion” stands for the union of East and West, with the dragon representing the East and the lion representing the West.

POP/ROCK

Manson Watch: An angry Marilyn Manson cut short a concert in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday night when he realized an audience member had stuck a large yellow smiley face on a stage prop. The resulting rowdiness ended in 23 arrests on assault and disorderly conduct charges. Earlier Wednesday, Manson had canceled five upcoming U.S. concert dates--including a May 8 show at Universal Amphitheatre--out of respect for shooting victims in Littleton, Colo. The shock rocker has been criticized since the rampage for being a possible influence on the shooters.

QUICK TAKES

Sharon Stone and Woody Allen are scheduled to begin filming Saturday on Kushner-Locke’s “Picking Up the Pieces,” a comedy about a butcher who kills his cheating wife in a fit of jealousy, cuts her up and buries the evidence in the Arizona desert--only to have her severed hand turn up performing miracles as “The Hand of the Virgin” in a small-town church. Alfonso Arau (“Like Water for Chocolate”) is set to direct. . . . CBS has confirmed plans for a TV movie next season on the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, based on Lawrence Schiller’s book, “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town.” The network also has acquired the rights to civil rights pioneer Rosa L. Parks’ life story for a TV movie--the first screen project to have Parks’ participation. . . . Pamela Anderson Lee issued a statement Thursday saying that she has reunited with her former husband, rocker Tommy Lee, and that she and the couple’s children are again living with him in Malibu. The couple divorced last year after Lee pleaded no contest to charges of hitting her.