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

MOVIES

Back to the Shrine: The Oscars will go back to the Shrine Auditorium for next year’s Academy Awards presentation, but it may be the last time the famed event will be held there. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Robert Rehme announced Monday that the next show will be March 26 at the “Moroccan-motif Shrine,” the ninth time for the venue. However, a permanent new theater home in Hollywood for the Oscars should be ready for the Academy Awards presentation in 2001. Oscar shows are expected to be held from then on at the site at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. This year the show was held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles, a site that has been a popular choice for past Oscar presentations. Apparently this year’s experiment of holding the Oscar presentations on a Sunday evening was a success, as the 2000 event is also scheduled for a Sunday.

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The Force Is Stolen: A $60,000 copy of “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” was stolen right off the projector at a theater over the weekend. The film, weighing more than 40 pounds, was taken from the first-floor projection room of the State Theater in Menomonie, Wis., between showings Friday and Saturday, theater owner Nick LeGros said. “In the 23 years I’ve been doing this, this is the first time I’ve had a film stolen,” LeGros said. Someone could make money by converting the movie to videocassette and selling it on the black market, police Lt. Doug Briggs said.

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Film Fests: The fifth annual Temecula Valley International Film Festival is set for June 17-24. MGM, now celebrating its 75th anniversary, will screen the re-release of the 1964 Beatles comedy “A Hard Day’s Night.” Two of the independent films scheduled for the festival are the comedy “Just a Little Harmless Sex,” with Alison Eastwood (Clint’s daughter), and the drama “The Climb,” with John Hurt. Shirley Jones, who won an Oscar as best supporting actress for “Elmer Gantry,” will receive the lifetime achievement award. . . . “Changing the Guard: The Festival of New British Cinema” makes its West Coast premiere on June 11 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It will continue on the weekends of June 18-19 and 25-26. Part of a nationwide tour, the festival includes 11 features and one program of short films. After Los Angeles, the series will make stops in Cleveland; Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Houston; Ithaca, N.Y.; Atlanta; and Columbus, Ohio.

TELEVISION

Body-Slammed: NBC’s movie biography of Minnesota Gov. Jesse “The Body” Ventura finished a weak fourth in the ratings Sunday, tag-teamed by ABC’s “Cleopatra,” with newcomer Leonor Varela, CBS’ tell-all Michael Landon movie and Fox’s telecast of “Independence Day.” “Cleopatra’s” ratings were solid but disappointing, based on the program’s $30-million budget and results for other major miniseries broadcast this month. Preliminary estimates show 17.4 million people tuned in for “Cleopatra,” slightly less than the audience for “Michael Landon, the Father I Knew.” NBC’s “Jesse Ventura Story” drew less than half that number, with roughly 8.5 million viewers.

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‘Buffy’ Finale Pulled: The season finale of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which was scheduled to air tonight on the WB, will be delayed until the summer because of a violent sequence involving a serpent’s attack on high school students. “Given the current climate, depicting acts of violence at a high school graduation ceremony--even fantasy acts against 60-foot serpents and vampires--we believe is inappropriate to broadcast around the actual dates of these time-honored ceremonies,” said network CEO Jamie Kellner. In its place, the WB will air a repeat episode.

POP MUSIC

Springsteen Record: The U.S. leg of the long-awaited reunion tour by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band got off to a triumphant start at the box office over the weekend when the group set a Continental Airlines Arena record by selling out 15 shows at the East Rutherford, N.J., venue. The 300,000 tickets were sold in just 13 hours, according to promoters. The rush on tickets, which were priced from $37.50 to $67.50, broke Springsteen’s old record of 11 sold-out shows (with a different band) at the same arena in 1992. Springsteen’s first U.S. tour with the E Street Band in a decade is expected to include Los Angeles shows, but dates and a venue have not been announced.

PEOPLE

‘Gun’ Shot: Rosie O’Donnell reportedly asked the cast of Broadway’s “Annie Get Your Gun” to change a lyric in one of the show’s hit songs before taping her talk show because it clashed with her views on guns. O’Donnell wanted the line “I can shoot a partridge with a single cartridge” removed from one of the show’s hit songs, “Anything You Can Do,” the New York Post reported Monday. The Post said the musical’s stars, led by Bernadette Peters, refused the request and shot down a planned taping of “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” set for today. The appearance was revived when co-star Tom Wopat and other cast members agreed to perform “My Defenses Are Down,” a song from the musical that does not mention guns. The Post said Peters will not appear. O’Donnell spokeswoman Lois Smith said the song was changed because Peters could not attend the taping. The report follows last week’s on-air debate between O’Donnell and actor Tom Selleck. The “Annie Get Your Gun” segment is scheduled to air next Tuesday.

QUICK TAKES

Although “Pirates of Silicon Valley” won’t officially premiere on TNT until June 20, the cable channel quietly ran the movie at 2 a.m. Wednesday in order to qualify it for Emmy consideration. Programs must be televised before June 1 to be eligible for this year’s Emmy Awards in September. . . . Amy Jo Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Frederic Forrest, Kelli Williams and Adam Ant are lined up to star in “Sweetwater,” an upcoming VH1 movie about the “forgotten band” that performed at Woodstock in 1969. Johnson (“Felicity”) plays the band’s lead singer, Nansi Nevins.