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

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Boss to Open Staples Center: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band will play the downtown Staples Center arena on Oct. 17 as part of the group’s first U.S. tour in more than a decade, it was confirmed Wednesday. The tour, which kicks off July 15 with 15 sold-out dates in New Jersey, follows 36 concerts in Europe. Tickets for the Staples concert--which will mark the first public event at the new 20,000-capacity arena--go on sale Sept. 18. Tickets have already gone on sale for 30 shows around the country, and all have sold out in one day, often in less than an hour. Additional shows were added for all the other cities after the original shows sold out, but a Springsteen spokesman wouldn’t comment on if or when additional L.A. dates would be scheduled.

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Rattle, Ozawa Take New Posts: The Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera selected Sir Simon Rattle and Seiji Ozawa, respectively, as music directors Wednesday. Rattle, 44, who stepped down from England’s Birmingham Symphony last year, will take over in September 2002 after Claudio Abbado retires from the coveted Berlin post. The same month, Ozawa, 63, will become music director at the Vienna State Opera, leaving the Boston Symphony Orchestra after more than a quarter century. Rattle, who was chosen over Chicago Symphony Musical Director Daniel Barenboim for the post, will become the Berlin’s sixth chief conductor in its 117-year history. Boston Symphony officials, meanwhile, said a committee would be formed this summer to search for Ozawa’s successor.

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Humanitas Nods: “NYPD Blue” picked up double nominations Wednesday for the Humanitas Prize honoring entertainment writers whose work “enriches and enlightens their audiences.” The ABC series was lauded in the hourlong program category (along with CBS’ “JAG,” Showtime’s “Rescuers: Stories of Courage” and NBC’s “Homicide: Life on the Street”) and also gained recognition for a special 90-minute episode in the long-form category (with CBS’ “Mama Flora’s Family” and ABC’s “Selma, Lord, Selma”). Episodes of ABC’s “Sports Night,” meanwhile, garnered two of the three nominations for half-hour programs, vying with CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Film nominees are “A Civil Action,” “October Sky” and “Saving Private Ryan.” Winners will be announced July 8.

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OCPAC Expansion Grows: The price tag of the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s proposed expansion has doubled to an estimated $200 million-plus, planners have told the center’s board of directors. The size of the building also has grown, by 63%, to 300,000 square feet, a center spokesman said. Theater designer and acoustician Russell Johnson said the increased size and cost of the proposed 1,800-seat concert hall and a 500-seat music hall are a more realistic estimate of the facility’s actual needs, not a major addition to the project.

QUICK TAKES

EMI Latin has signed boxer Oscar De La Hoya to a multimillion-dollar recording contract covering both Spanish- and English-language albums. . . . Whitney Houston launched her first concert tour in five years Tuesday at Chicago’s Arie Crown Theatre, and her decision to return to smaller halls after playing mainly arenas appeared to pay off. “Houston’s stage presence was phenomenal,” the Chicago Tribune wrote of the show, which reaches L.A.’s Universal Amphitheatre on July 29 and 30. . . . Manufacturer McFarlane Toys has responded to a Georgia woman’s obscenity complaint over a talking “Austin Powers” doll that asked, “Do I make you horny, baby, do I?” by saying that the doll--which the woman’s son picked up at a Toys R Us store near Atlanta, was intended for specialty retailers with older clienteles and landed at Toys R Us due to “human error.”