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

PEOPLE

Rosie Quits Kmart: Rosie O’Donnell is not renewing her contract as spokeswoman for Kmart in light of her support for tougher restrictions on access to guns. For the past five years, the Emmy Award winner has appeared in TV ads for the Troy, Mich.-based company, which sells rifles and shotguns in many of its stores. O’Donnell will continue to appear in ads through the end of the year, and Kmart said it will continue to support her charitable causes.

Mad for George: Sir Nigel Hawthorne, who received an Academy Award nomination as King George III in “The Madness of King George,” unveiled a bust of the king on Tuesday at the British Library. The marble sculpture had been missing for five years before it was found in the United States.

THE ARTS

Orange Becomes Eclectic: The first Eclectic Orange Festival, which ranged from dance and classical music to multimedia theater, world music and even rock ‘n’ roll, attracted 20,000 people during a 6 1/2-week run ending Nov. 16, according to its presenter, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County. Twenty-five performances generated a box-office gross of $500,000; that fell about $20,000 short of the first-year target, said Dean Corey, the Philharmonic Society’s executive director. Nevertheless, he thinks Eclectic Orange laid a solid foundation, and booking has begun for the next two years.

POP/ROCK

Korn Reaps Top Spot: Korn, Dr. Dre and Celine Dion lead a parade of debut albums entering the nation’s pop chart this week. Five new albums broke into the Top 10, led by Korn’s “Issues” at No. 1 with 574,000 copies sold. Dre’s comeback album, “Chronic 2001,” claims the No. 2 slot with 516,000 units sold, followed at No. 3 by Dion’s “All the Way--A Decade of Song,” which collects the Canadian singer’s biggest hits along with new material.

QUICK TAKES

UPN has canceled “The Strip,” a first-year detective series set in Las Vegas from producer Joel Silver. The show will continue to air through December. “The Beat,” a new cop show from “Homicide” producers Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, is expected to fill the program’s Tuesday time slot beginning in January. . . . Any high school student who shows a straight-A report card at the Pantages box office between noon and 1 p.m. Friday for “Fame--The Musical” will receive a free ticket to that day’s matinee performance. The full-time student must present a report card issued this year along with a current student ID.