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

POP/ROCK

Net News: In the most ambitious Internet launch ever for a new album, Metallica’s “S&M;, Metallica With the San Francisco Symphony Conducted by Michael Kamen” will be previewed in its entirety via more than 300 Web sites before its commercial release on Nov. 23. The two-disc package from Elektra Records will be streamed track by track and around the clock for a week starting at 9 p.m. Thursday. The showcase will be hosted by Time Warner’s Entertaindom.com and offered on sites ranging from Metallica.com to MTV.com. “Metallica has always been about challenging their fans and pushing the envelope,” said Sylvia Rhone, chairman/CEO of Elektra Entertainment Group. “This promotion does both.” The online campaign will be highlighted by a live Webcast of Metallica’s concert with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s on Nov. 23 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

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Holding Pattern: Celine Dion is putting her career on hold for two years to spend more time with her husband, whose cancer has been in remission for seven months. “I told myself, ‘Life is sending me a message,’ ” Dion says in the Nov. 20 issue of TV Guide. “The message was: ‘It is time that you are there for each other, that you get back to reality. . . . Show business is not your life.” Her husband, Rene Angelil discovered a lump “bigger than an egg” on his throat in the middle of a concert tour last spring. He has managed Dion’s career since she was a teenager. They were married in 1994.

TELEVISION

No Go: Julianna Margulies, who plays nurse Carol Hathaway on NBC’s top-rated “ER,” has rejected a deal, amounting to approximately $27 million, that would have kept her on the medical drama for two more years. In February, the actress announced she would leave the series after this season. George Clooney, who played her lover, has also defected, but original cast members Anthony Edwards, Eriq La Salle and Noah Wyle are staying aboard, ensuring that the popular show will continue into the 2000 season. Margulies has said she plans to return to New York when her work on “ER” is completed.

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Tsk, Tsk!: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued a finding supporting female technicians who claim they’ve been denied promotions and lucrative job assignments routinely given to men at six TV stations owned by CBS. The EEOC said the technicians, 165 of whom filed a 1996 class-action suit against the network in Minnesota, have been subjected to “disparate treatment in salary, amount of overtime, promotion opportunities and training.” The agency also found indications of “a sexually hostile environment” at CBS in the form of “verbal harassment by their colleagues and by management.” “CBS has for years resisted the efforts of these women to try to make the work environment at CBS a level playing field,” said Susan Stokes, an attorney with the Minneapolis office of Sprenger & Lang. The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in January.

STAGE

Star Crash: A mechanical failure caused a cube-like “tomb” carrying the stars of the Broadway-bound musical “Aida” to fall 10 feet to the floor of a Chicago stage Saturday night, injuring the actors and horrifying the audience. The accident, which caused only minor injuries to performers Heather Headley and Adam Pascal, occurred moments before the ending of the second preview performance in the newly reopened Cadillac Palace Theater. The impact ejected the actors onto the lip of the stage, as houselights were brought up and stagehands rushed over to the pair, who remained entwined and immobile. The actors were taken to Northwestern University Hospital and released soon after. “They are fine,” said Peter Schneider, president of Disney Theatricals, which is producing the show. “Both are in good spirits.” Though the Tim Rice-Elton John musical is scheduled to resume Wednesday, it is unclear whether Headley and Pascal will return immediately.

MOVIES

See No Evil: Iran has issued its first adults-only film rating since the Islamic revolution 20 years ago. The recipient: “Sweet Agony,” which portrays distant cousins struggling to overcome family objections to a physical relationship before marriage. The movie--in which the couple never kiss (or even touch)--has become a sensation in the country, especially among young people who relate to the teenaged pair. “Films in most places are reflections of society,” said the film’s critically praised director, Davoud Nezhad Alireza “But in Iran I feel like we can try to use film to project something on society.” With the moderate President Mohammad Khatami in power, he adds, things are looking up: “We have a chance now to move Iranian films into new frontiers.”

QUICK TAKES

Buck Owens & the Buckaroos were supposed to sing adios to the Crazy Horse Steak House’s original location last night--a performance that was derailed when the singer came down with the flu. The owners hope to reschedule the show before the club moves from its Santa Ana home to a larger site in the Irvine Spectrum in December.