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

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Seeing Red: The Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. has reported a deficit of $2.7 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1999--its largest ever according to previous information released by the organization. An Ernst & Young audit completed last week showed that the group finished its year with a surplus of nearly $1.4 million before one-time-only expenses totaling more than $4 million were factored in. Among those were the purchase of the food concession at the Hollywood Bowl and--according to a previous interview with board President Robert Weingarten--a settlement worked out with Willem Wijnbergen, former managing director of the Philharmonic, who departed in June.

POP/ROCK

Controversial Pose: Jennifer Lopez--whose boyfriend Sean “Puffy” Combs pleaded not guilty Monday to gun charges in connection with a nightclub shooting incident for which Lopez was also briefly arrested--appears on the cover of the March issue of Tina Brown’s Talk magazine in a pose with her forefinger extended and thumb in the air as if her hand were a gun. The photo runs next to the tag lines: “Line of Fire: Jennifer Lopez Stands Her Ground” and “Puff Daddy Takes a Hit.” Though Lopez is said to have not yet seen the magazine, a source close to her noted that she did a full photo session before the December shooting incident and called the magazine’s cover “an obvious effort by a desperate magazine to increase circulation by exploiting that circumstance.”

MOVIES & TV

‘Sopranos’ Power: HBO’s “Sopranos” looks poised to continue dominating the TV awards circuit, as four episodes have been singled out by the Directors Guild of America for outstanding directorial achievement in a drama series (nominated directors are Daniel Attias, Henry J. Bronchtein, David Chase and Allen Coulter). The lone non-”Sopranos” nominee: Thomas Schlamme, for the pilot episode of NBC’s “West Wing.” The DGA’s comedy series nominees, meanwhile, are Schlamme (for ABC’s “Sports Night”), James Burrows (NBC’s “Will & Grace”), Victoria Hochberg (HBO’s “Sex and the City”), and Pamela Fryman and Katy Garretson (both for episodes of NBC’s “Frasier”). Winners will be named March 11.

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MovieFone Nominations: “American Beauty,” “The Green Mile,” “The Matrix,” “The Sixth Sense” and “Toy Story 2” were nominated Tuesday for outstanding film in the annual MovieFone Moviegoer Awards, voted through the Internet and MovieFone’s telephone listing service. Additional nominees are Frank Darabont (“Green Mile”), Sam Mendes (“Beauty”), Anthony Minghella (“The Talented Mr. Ripley”), M. Night Shyamalan (“Sixth Sense”) and Larry and Andy Wachowski (“Matrix”) for best director; Matt Damon (“Ripley”), Tom Hanks (“Green Mile”) Haley Joel Osment (“Sixth Sense”), Kevin Spacey (“Beauty”) and Bruce Willis (“Sixth Sense”) for best actor; and Drew Barrymore (“Never Been Kissed”), Annette Bening (“Beauty”), Angelina Jolie (“Girl, Interrupted”), Julia Roberts (“Notting Hill”) and Reese Witherspoon (“Election”) for best actress. Winners will be announced Feb. 29.

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Blockbuster Picks: Some of the same actors show up in nominations for another fan-voted kudosfest, the Blockbuster Awards, with Bening competing with Cameron Diaz (“Any Given Sunday”) and Winona Ryder (“Girl, Interrupted”) for favorite actress in a drama, and Hanks and Spacey vying with Al Pacino (“Any Given Sunday”) and Denzel Washington (“The Hurricane”) for favorite actor in a drama. Additional nominees include Thora Birch (“Beauty”), Bonnie Hunt (“Green Mile”), Jolie (“Girl, Interrupted”) and Julianne Moore (“Magnolia”) for supporting actress in a drama and Wes Bentley (“Beauty”), Tom Cruise (“Magnolia”), Michael Clarke Duncan (“Green Mile”) and Jamie Foxx (“Any Given Sunday”) for supporting actor in a drama. The awards will air in June on Fox.

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Legal Briefs: Artisan Entertainment has sued United Artists, claiming the theater chain owes it $3.2 million in uncollected receipts from showings of “The Blair Witch Project.” Representatives from UA could not be reached for comment. . . . Former “Hollywood madam” Heidi Fleiss has sued E! Entertainment Television, saying the cable channel aired an unauthorized biography that put her life in danger while she was in federal prison for tax evasion and money laundering. Fleiss claims that a November segment of “The E! True Hollywood Story” depicted her as an LAPD informant, thereby making other inmates see her “as a threat to their existence.” In a statement, E! said it was “confident that all information” in the biography “was accurately reported.” . . . A Los Angeles judge has refused to dismiss hate-crime charges against “Veronica’s Closet” co-star Wallace Langham, who is accused of beating an unnamed gay man in September, despite an agreed-upon six-figure civil settlement between Langham and the man. The judge said a civil settlement was not appropriate because the case involved a “fairly brutal attack” and because Langham allegedly used slurs against the man.

QUICK TAKES

ABC’s Mary Tyler Moore-Valerie Harper reunion movie, “Mary & Rhoda,” did well Monday night, drawing an estimated 17.7 million viewers to become the most-watched show of the night. . . . KACE-FM (103.9), which dropped its R&B; oldies format at midnight Monday in the wake of being bought by Hispanic Broadcasting Corp., expects to have its new format in place Thursday or Friday, an HBC vice president said Tuesday. Currently the station is conducting a listener evaluation test, playing excerpts of various types of Mexican music, to find out what listeners prefer. . . . Vice President Al Gore will be a guest on Thursday’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” on NBC. . . . Fox has picked up another 16 episodes of its new Sunday night hit comedy “Malcolm in the Middle.” . . . Former “Law & Order” star Carey Lowell, 38, gave birth to her first child with boyfriend actor Richard Gere, 50, on Sunday in New York. The couple named the boy Homer James Jigme Gere.