Best Bets / APRIL 23-29, 2000

Movies

“The Big Kahuna,” a tale of innocence and guile colliding at a trade convention where three traveling salesmen (Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli) attempt to snare a big client. Opening in general release Friday.

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Marc Addy is Fred and Stephen Baldwin is Barney in “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas,” which chronicles Fred’s courtship of Wilma (Kristen Johnston). “Ally McBeal’s” Jane Krakowski co-stars as Betty. Opening in general release Friday.

Theater

A Noise Within’s inaugural season of residency at the Luckman Theatre continues with “Cymbeline,” one of Shakespeare’s last and one of his least seen plays. Directed by Art Manke, this epic of mistaken identities, Machiavellian mores and faith rewarded revolves around heroic Imogen, who must marry her doltish stepbrother after her husband is banished. Opens Friday.

Pop Music

Booking agents have conspired to make Friday a tough call for fans of independent-minded female artists, with Nashville outcast and critical darling Shelby Lynne, bottom right, wailing at the House of Blues and idiosyncratic alterna-diva Fiona Apple, bottom left, headlining the Wiltern. The solution: Apple also plays Saturday. Added bonus: Eels’ leader E opens the Wiltern shows.

Music

Acclaimed Italian Viennese pianist Marino Formenti returns for “Four Nights of Piano” at the L.A. County Museum of Art. On each of his programs, Monday, Thursday, May 1 and 4, Formenti offers a different national perspective of music of our time. Included are works by Brice Pauset, Messiaen, Antonio Chagas Rosa, Nono, Olga Neuwirth, Roman Haubenstock-Ramanti, Cage, Ives and Stalvey.

Video

Meryl Streep received her 12th Oscar nomination for her gutsy turn in “Music of the Heart” as Roberta Guaspari, a feisty schoolteacher intent on teaching violin to inner-city Harlem kids. Based on the award-winning documentary “Small Wonders,” the film was directed by, of all people, horror-meister Wes Craven. The drama arrives Tuesday on video and DVD.

Museums

Works by local artists who received cultural grant fellowships last year from the city of Los Angeles will be showcased in “C.O.L.A 2000,” opening Wednesday at the UCLA Hammer Museum. Featuring works by Lynn Aldrich, Nancy Buchanan, Ingrid Calame, Carole Caroompas, Barbara Carrasco, John Divola, Robbert Flick, Michael Gonzalez, Daniel Martinez, Susan Mogul, Linda Nishio and Millie Wilson, the exhibition will be paired with “Likeness: Some Recent Portrait Drawings by David Hockney.” Above, Buchanan’s “After Edgar Payne.”