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

ART

Guggenheim Goes to Venice: The Guggenheim Museum is opening a new outpost in an old space, converting the 17th century Customs House on Venice’s Grand Canal into a new international branch, with the Venice Guggenheim Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art set to open in three years. The Italian and Venetian governments agreed to donate use of the building--a triangular structure built in 1676-82 on a wedge-shaped piece of land at the meeting point of two canals--for 99 years. Although the building’s exterior will be unchanged, architect Vittorio Gregotti will lead the interior renovations, estimated to cost $13 million. The New York-based Guggenheim already has branches in Berlin and in Bilbao, Spain, where Frank Gehry’s design has won international architectural acclaim. Venice, meanwhile, is already home to the Guggenheim Collection--an eclectic private art collection owned by the late Peggy Guggenheim. It will remain on exhibit just a few steps from the site of the planned new museum--in the palazzo where the celebrated collector lived for 30 years before her death in 1979.

TV & MOVIES

Women, Minorities Still Lagging: In its annual study on female and minority hiring, the Directors Guild said Thursday that employment levels for female directors declined in 1998 for the third consecutive year, hitting the lowest level since 1990. The study found that women accounted for only 10.2% of the total days worked by guild directors in 1998, down from 10.7% in 1997. The employment level also dropped among minority directors in 1998, to 8.4%, as opposed to 8.6% the year before. Latino directors took the biggest hit, falling from 3.1% to 2.3%, while African American directors’ employment levels stayed the same, at 4.4% of all days worked. The study covered directors working in both film and tape, and guild President Jack Shea said the “very disappointing” numbers showed a “severe underemployment of women and minorities on the directorial team.” The news was somewhat better, however, among the perhaps highest-profile category of directors--those working on feature films. Both groups’ percentage of employment in that category rose from the previous year: Female directors, while still accounting for only 8.5% of the total days worked, increased their number from 7.1% the year before, while minority theatrical film directors rose to 8.4% from 7.0% in 1997.

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Globe Watch: A total of 195 feature films, including 111 dramas and 84 comedies or musicals, will compete for the 57th annual Golden Globe awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced Thursday. In addition, the group said that 111 TV series (53 dramas and 58 comedies), 96 miniseries or TV movies, and 40 foreign-language films have qualified for the awards, airing Jan. 23 on NBC. Nominations will be announced Dec. 20.

POP/ROCK

Billboard Winners: The Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, the two dominating mega-sellers of the youth pop explosion, were the big winners at Wednesday night’s Billboard Music Awards, scooping up four awards each at the Las Vegas ceremony. The Backstreet Boys’ honors included artists and album of the year, while Spears was named best new artist and best female artist at the event, which hands out trophies based on the trade publication’s year-end charts (which, in turn, are based on album sales and radio airplay). The Dixie Chicks, Ricky Martin and Creed were other multiple winners, while Mariah Carey was named artist of the decade. “I feel like I’m just getting started,” Carey told the audience at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. “I’m so happy to be finally free to be who I am.” Meanwhile, the awards show provided a well-needed ratings boost for Fox, drawing an average of 12.2 million viewers, according to early ratings estimates.

QUICK TAKES

New York police cleared about 100 John Lennon fans from Central Park’s Strawberry Fields early Thursday, but no arrests were made in conjunction with an all-night vigil marking the 19th anniversary of the former Beatle’s slaying. The spot named for the popular Lennon-McCartney tune is legally closed from 1 to 6 a.m. as a public safety measure. . . . Cirque du Soleil is offering a limited number of last-minute house seats for sale 30 minutes before each performance of “Dralion,” at the Irvine Spectrum through Jan. 23.