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

MOVIES

Polling the Outsiders: Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. said Monday that it is conducting a poll of audiences who watched the film “The Insider” this weekend to help decide whether to file a libel suit against distributor Walt Disney Co. Filmgoers in Los Angeles and six other cities were handed cards when they left theaters asking them to dial a toll-free number to answer “a few important questions” about the movie, which depicts real-life whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand’s decision to go public on “60 Minutes” with damaging information about the tobacco industry. “It’s a very serious attempt to find out what people think about the role Brown & Williamson had as depicted in the movie,” said Mark Smith, a spokesman for the tobacco company, a unit of British American Tobacco. As for the suit, Smith said, “We’re keeping our options open.” Neither the cards nor the recorded questions disclose that Brown & Williamson is conducting the survey. “There’s nothing we’re trying to hide here,” said Smith, noting that the name wasn’t disclosed in an effort to avoid skewing the results. A Disney spokesman declined comment.

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No Cannibal, No ‘Hannibal’: Jodie Foster says she will not star in “Hannibal,” the sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs,” because it’s too grisly and isn’t true to FBI agent Clarice Starling, the character Foster played in the first movie. In “Hannibal,” Starling becomes a cannibal like the title character, Hannibal Lecter. “I stand to make more money doing that sequel than I’ve ever made in my life,” Foster told W magazine in its December issue. “But who cares, if it betrays Clarice--who is a person, in some strange way, to me. The movie worked because people believed in her heroism. I won’t play her with negative attributes she’d never have.” In her next movie, Foster plays an English governess who travels to what is now Thailand in 1862 in “Anna and the King.”

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On Fire and Smiling: Stratosphere Entertainment has bought North American distribution rights to “Smiling Fish and Goat on Fire,” the winner of this year’s Toronto Film Festival Discovery Award and the debut feature of 25-year-old director Kevin Jordan. Stratosphere also gets a first look on the next three projects made by Jordan and the film’s two stars, Derick and Steven Martini.

TELEVISION

Diversity Protest at NBC: About 80 protesters, led by Brotherhood Crusade President Danny Bakewell Sr., marched outside NBC Studios on Monday in the first stage of their protest against what they called the network’s lack of cultural diversity in the fall season, and the absence of black anchors on NBC’s owned-and-operated station KNBC. Chanting “Turn It Off, Keep It Off” and “No Justice, No Peace,” Bakewell called for viewers to not watch NBC during the November ratings sweeps, when the network is seeking larger audiences to determine advertising rates. During the protest, KNBC vice president and general manager Ray Heacox agreed to meet with Bakewell about the lack of black anchors and other diversity issues. Both later described the meeting as positive, though Bakewell said he was not entirely pleased with Heacox’s explanation that there were no anchor positions available. Bakewell said he would stage further protests each Monday.

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‘Annie’s’ Sun Came Out Sunday: “Annie” hit the highest note among three major productions scheduled for sweeps Sunday, based on preliminary rating estimates. The sun came up on “Annie” to the tune of 26.7 million viewers, ABC’s largest audience for “The Wonderful World of Disney” since another musical, “Cinderella,” two years ago. “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” also returned in fine fashion with a best-yet audience of 25.9 million, easily beating the season premiere of “The X-Files” (17.6 million, down 13% compared to last year). As for the two miniseries combatants in Sunday’s 9 p.m. shootout, NBC’s “The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns” conjured up 15.7 million viewers and CBS’ “Shake, Rattle & Roll” drew an even less magical 13.6 million.

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Seinfeld Engaged: Jerry Seinfeld, whose famed TV character did all he could to avoid marriage, is engaged. The woman is Jessica Sklar, 28, a public relations executive he started dating last summer--shortly after she returned from her honeymoon with her then-husband, Broadway producer Eric Nederlander, said Seinfeld’s personal publicist, Elizabeth Clark. The couple has since divorced. Clark declined to disclose any details of Seinfeld’s engagement or wedding plans.

STAGE

New Place in the Sun?: Cirque du Soleil may be looking for a new place to raise its big top after complaints from merchants on the Santa Monica Pier. The Canada-based circus has used the lot adjacent to the pier for 10 years, but the city is looking to renegotiate when the current five-year contract expires after the run of “Dralion.” Merchants gripe that its presence eats up the parking, already tight because of the popular Third Street Promenade. “Current pier restoration has made access difficult during this run,” says Judith Meister, the city of Santa Monica’s beach manager. “Cirque du Soleil is wonderful to work with, but they are now a much larger organization. . . . Negotiations probably won’t start for another six months, but we are examining alternative locations in the city.”

QUICK TAKES

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer A. Scott Berg (“Lindbergh”) launches Los Angeles Film School’s speaker series tonight at 7:30, speaking on “The Goldwyn Age of Hollywood”. . . . A second “Ally McBeal” soundtrack album--”Heart and Soul, New Songs from ‘Ally McBeal’ Featuring Vonda Shepard”--debuts in stores today. . . . Rolling Stone TV critic and pop culture writer David Wild signs copies of his book “The Showrunners: A Season Inside the Billion Dollar, Death Defying, Madcap World of Television’s Real Stars” at Book Soup in Hollywood tonight at 7:30.