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

MOVIES

Arab Protests: The government of Yemen on Thursday urged all Arab states to boycott the hit film “Rules of Engagement,” calling the Samuel L. Jackson-Tommy Lee Jones military drama a “barbaric and racist attack against Arabs and Yemenis.” The film shows Yemenis rioting outside the U.S. Embassy and shooting U.S. Marines dispatched to the scene. In a letter to the Arab League, the Yemeni government demanded the league boycott the film and its maker, Paramount Pictures, a Yemen foreign ministry official said. He added that it was unfair to portray Yemenis as anti-American because Yemen has not had a riot against the United States in nearly 10 years. The film has not been released in the Arab world. In a statement, Paramount called “Rules of Engagement” a fictional account of the consequences of extremism and said: “The film is not an indictment of any government, culture or people.” The movie has also drawn fire in the U.S., with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee calling it “probably the most vicious anti-Arab racist film ever made by a major Hollywood studio.”

Mixing Sight and Sound: Director Mike Figgis (“Leaving Las Vegas”) will personally conduct a live sound mix for his new film “Time Code” on its opening day, next Friday, at the 5 p.m. screening at the Nuart in West Los Angeles. For that one show, the Nuart will project the movie digitally via the original high-definition videotape, and Figgis will mix the sound, dialogue and music on the spot, deciding which of the four stories on screen will get sound (the screen is divided into quadrants so the audience will be following four visual story lines at once). All other screenings will be on 35-millimeter film, with a permanent sound mix. . . . Figgis, meanwhile, will also appear tonight at 8 at West Hollywood’s Book Soup, when he discusses and signs copies of his book, “Projections 10: Hollywood Filmmakers on Filmmaking.”

TV & RADIO

Extending the Memories: Those upset by the end of Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210” can console themselves with a piece of the show, when some 400 items from the long-running series are auctioned off on the Web at https://www.asseenin.com. Up for bids will be wardrobe items, furnishings and accessories such as the wedding dress worn by original series star Jennie Garth, who plays Kelly. Other items include the moon-and-stars bookcase from Donna and Kelly’s beach house and Dylan’s motorcycle. Items will be posted on the site beginning Tuesday, with new items appearing until the series’ final episode on May 17.

Conflict of Interest?: KABC-AM talk-show host Al Rantel featured one of the station’s advertisers, defense attorney Myles Berman, as an expert guest during his Wednesday program. A KABC spokeswoman stressed that such programming decisions are made separately from advertising and that Berman’s relationship to the station as a sponsor was disclosed. “You can’t buy an interview,” she said.

POP/ROCK

Dead Kennedys Fight: Three members of the influential punk-rock band Dead Kennedys will face Jello Biafra, the group’s former lead singer and best-known member, in court next week over the band’s legacy. Guitarist East Bay Ray, bassist Klaus Fluoride and drummer D.H. Peligro claim that Biafra has been using the profits from the group’s records to support his new career as a sometime politician and spoken-word artist. Biafra, meanwhile, has charged his former bandmates with trying to hijack his Alternative Tentacles record label after he refused to sell the rights to the Dead Kennedys’ song “Holiday in Cambodia” to Levi’s for a Dockers TV commercial.

QUICK TAKES

Metallica, Korn, Kid Rock and System of a Down will perform together in a testosterone-filled show July 15 at the L.A. Coliseum. Tickets go on sale April 29. . . . Christopher Titus, the star of Fox’s new sitcom “Titus,” performs at Pasadena’s Ice House on Thursday. . . . A contingent of “Star Trek” fans intends to rally outside Paramount Pictures Saturday, urging the studio to create a new TV series featuring original “Trek” cast member George Takei as Capt. Sulu. Paramount is planning a new “Star Trek” series for next year but has yet to divulge the concept. . . . The Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage has extended its Thursday viewing hours until 8 p.m. In addition, the museum is now offering free admission on the second Tuesday of each month. . . . Former “Good Morning America” co-host Joan Lunden wed her longtime beau, Jeff Konigsberg, in a candle-lit ceremony in Westchester, N.Y., on Tuesday evening. . . . People magazine is reporting that “Sports Night” star Felicity Huffman and husband William H. Macy (“Fargo,” “Magnolia”) are expecting their first child in August.

Quotable: “Despite what you may have read, including quotes falsely attributed to me, I do not know the sex of my baby and I have no plans for marriage.”--New mom-to-be Madonna, responding to published British reports saying that a routine prenatal scan showed her baby with boyfriend Guy Ritchie was a boy.