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

MOVIES

‘Star Wars’ Shuffle: Two prime Los Angeles movie theaters--the Mann Village in Westwood and the Mann’s Chinese in Hollywood--will show “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” for only four weeks beginning Wednesday, and Loews Cineplex in New York City won’t be showing the film at all. That was the outcome this week after a round of tough bargaining between the exhibitors and 20th Century Fox, which had demanded that major market theaters run the film for a minimum of 12 weeks--virtually the entire summer. Although the film has received mixed advance reviews, sources stressed that the decision to limit the movie at certain theaters or exclude it is not based on what the critics say. “It has nothing to do with the movie,” one source said. “It has to do with deals made between studios and exhibitors.” Fox could have pulled the film entirely from both the Village and Chinese, but officials did not want to disappoint fans who have lined up for days waiting to purchase advance tickets. As a result, once the four-week run is completed at those two movie houses, “Star Wars” will move to General Cinema’s Avco in Westwood and the Galaxy in Hollywood. In New York, meanwhile, Loews will not play the film on any of its Manhattan screens but will show “Star Wars” in Loews theaters outside Manhattan. Fox intends to open the movie at 2,950 theaters throughout North America.

Make a Night of It: In conjunction with this weekend’s round-the-clock final viewing for the L.A. County Museum of Art’s Van Gogh exhibition, the nearby Museum of the Holocaust (at 6006 Wilshire Blvd.) will host continuous screenings of “The Diary of Anne Frank” beginning at 11 tonight. Admission is $2 but free to those with Van Gogh ticket stubs.

Twisted Fare: Performance artist and self-proclaimed “freak” Jim Rose of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow has signed a six-figure deal with White Peach Productions to take his biography, “Freak Like Me: Inside the Jim Rose Circus,” to the big screen. . . . Rhino Films has begun production on “I Know What You Screamed Last Summer,” a spoof of the similarly named teen horror flicks. Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Tom Arnold, Coolio, Jimmy “JJ” Walker and Shirley Jones are among the stars.

POP/ROCK

Millennium Fame: Barbra Streisand may stand to make the most money on New Year’s Eve thanks to her big bucks Las Vegas show, but it’ll be David Bowie who claims the prize as the new millennium’s first performer. Thanks to the wonders of time zones, the New Year’s clock will strike first in the city of Gisborne, New Zealand--12 hours ahead of London, 17 hours before New York and 20 hours before Los Angeles. So it is there that Bowie, along with the reunited band Split Enz, will headline “‘First Moment--First Light: The Gisborne 2000 Festival,” a beach-side event scheduled from dusk on New Year’s Eve until dawn on New Year’s morning. A worldwide TV broadcast is also planned.

TELEVISION

‘Homicide’ Case Closed: NBC has canceled its Friday night drama “Homicide: Life on the Street” and the comedies “News-Radio” and “Caroline in the City.” “Homicide’s” final episode will air next week. Meanwhile, the network has ordered 13 more episodes of its reality series “World’s Most Amazing Videos,” though the program is likely to air in midseason rather than on NBC’s fall schedule. The network will officially announce its fall schedule on Monday. . . . In other programming news, E! Entertainment Television will expand its celebrity tell-all series, “The E! True Hollywood Story,” to six nights a week (Sundays through Fridays) starting Aug. 1. The show, which will be broadcast at 9 p.m., has previously appeared four nights a week.

ART

Moore Record: Henry Moore’s massive bronze “Reclining Figure” sold for $4.1 million at Christie’s 20th century art sale Thursday night in New York, setting a record for the British sculptor. It had been expected to fetch $2.5 million to $3 million. The top sale was Jasper Johns’ 1973 painting “Two Flags,” at $7.2 million.

QUICK TAKES

Joni Mitchell will receive the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ highest honor, the ASCAP Founders Award, on Monday at the group’s Pop Music Awards Gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Past recipients include Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. . . . The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences’ music education arm has released “Smart Symphonies,” a CD of Grammy-winning classical music that will be given to more than 1 million new mothers as they leave hospitals post-delivery. Studies have indicated that classical music can help stimulate babies’ brain development. . . . Warner Bros. will release a film clip and comments from stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman on Stanley Kubrick’s much-anticipated last film, “Eyes Wide Shut,” on the Web (https://www.eyeswideshut.com) on Monday. . . . Former CNN reporter Peter Arnett will interview world leaders and do other international reports for foreigntv.com, a new Internet operation. . . . Husband-and-wife actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee will read from and sign their books “In This Life Together” and “My One Good Nerve” on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Borders Books in Santa Monica. . . . Sixty local bands will perform at Lush in Santa Monica (2020 Wilshire Blvd.) today and Sunday in a music marathon to raise funds for the Red Cross’ Kosovo relief fund. . . . The weekly syndicated Internet series “Wild Wild Web” gets a new time slot late tonight on KCBS-TV: 12:30 a.m., immediately following “The Howard Stern Radio Show.”