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

ENTERTAINMENT

English Dubbing Is Beautiful: Hoping to give its Oscar-winning film a second life in theaters, Miramax is releasing the dubbed English-language version of the Roberto Benigni film “Life Is Beautiful” on Aug. 27. (The dubbed version will premiere in a free outdoor screening Tuesday in New York’s Bryant Park.) Benigni said he hopes this will “lead to English dubs of other foreign films in the U.S.,” thus promoting wider viewership for all non-English-language movies. The Italian-language version of the Holocaust-themed film grossed a record $57 million in the United States.

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A&E; Salutes ‘Sopranos’ Cast: Cable’s A&E; will salute HBO’s multiple-Emmy nominee “The Sopranos” by airing a six-hour “Law & Order” marathon comprised of episodes featuring “Sopranos” cast members--including Emmy nominee Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese, Jerry Adler and Vincent Pastore--in their pre-HBO days. The marathon will air on Labor Day (Sept. 6) from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., repeating from 2 to 8 p.m. NBC’s “Law & Order” is one of the nominees competing with “The Sopranos” for best drama at the Sept. 12 Emmy Awards.

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Identifying Kids’ Fare: A group called the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media has teamed with the 1,400-store Hollywood Video chain and its online service, Reel.com, on a program that aims to help families select videos without gratuitous violence, sexual content or racial or cultural biases. The “Kids First!” initiative uses youngsters and adult child development specialists, librarians and teachers to evaluate videos and endorses those found to have no gratuitous violence or sexual behavior, physical or verbal abuse, condescension toward children, unsafe behavior, and no racial, gender, cultural or religious bias.

QUICK TAKES

The Backstreet Boys are still No. 1. The teen pop group’s “Millennium” sold 250,000 copies last week to retain the top chart spot, easily outpacing No. 2 Limp Bizkit’s sales of 192,000 copies of “Significant Other.” . . . Chris Barron, lead singer for the pop group the Spin Doctors, has been diagnosed with a rare condition that involves paralysis of his vocal cords. His record label, Universal, says he cannot speak above a whisper and has been told that he may never regain the full use of his voice. . . . VH1’s first original movie, “Sweetwater: A True Rock Story,” which premiered Sunday, garnered the cable network’s second-highest ratings of the year (Behind “Divas Live”) and the network’s fourth-highest viewer numbers ever. . . . Former “James Bond” star Roger Moore has joined the cast of the syndicated drama “The Dream Team,” premiering next month on KCOP-TV. Moore will play the “mysterious leader” of a squadron of “Charlie’s Angels”-like intelligence agents.