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

Documentary Short Oscar Stays: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board has voted to continue awarding Oscars for documentary shorts. The decision reverses a controversial January vote that would have merged the documentary feature and documentary short subjects. In other changes, the academy’s board also voted Tuesday to limit the number of producers eligible to receive the best picture Oscar to three per film. Four films nominated for best picture in the last five years had more than three credited producers.

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Top Country Honors: Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty and Johnny Bond, a singer-songwriter who performed for years with Gene Autry, were named Wednesday to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn. The three will be installed Sept. 22 during the 33rd annual Country Music Assn. awards. Parton, the only one of the three still living, has topped the country music charts more than 20 times in her career, while Twitty had more than 50 No. 1 records and Bond’s hits included the No. 1 single “Ten Little Bottles.”

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It’s a Boys’ World: The Backstreet Boys and Ricky Martin continue their heartthrob derby atop the nation’s album charts, with the Boys’ “Millennium” holding on to No. 1 this week with 371,000 copies sold, according to SoundScan. Martin’s English-language debut, meanwhile, sold 310,000 copies and was followed by the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Californication,” which debuts at No. 3 with 189,000 units sold.

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Museum Director Resigns: Thomas Rhoads, director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art since its founding in 1988, has announced his resignation from the post, effective in January. Associate director Eddi Wolk will oversee operations until a new director is chosen. Rhoads, 45, guided the museum’s development in its original home in a former egg-processing warehouse on Santa Monica’s Main Street, as well as its move last year to an industrial space at Bergamot Station. Recently awarded a Durfee Foundation sabbatical grant, Rhoads begins a four-month leave in July. After January, he will serve for a year as a consultant to the museum, which principally exhibits emerging and mid-career artists from Southern California.

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Booking Clooney’s Return: “ER’s” producers are flatly denying a People magazine report saying George Clooney will return to the NBC show next season for $2 million per episode. Warner Bros. Television and Clooney issued a statement saying it was always understood the actor would return in cameo appearances, but that money was not the issue. Details regarding any guest shots, they said, won’t be finalized until next season’s story lines are blocked out. The show’s ratings dropped after Clooney’s exit in February, which may have fostered speculation about efforts to bring him back as a series regular.