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

MOVIES

Roth Goes, Roberts Follows: Julia Roberts and Joe Roth, who headed Walt Disney Studios for more than five years, announced that the actress has signed a multiyear deal with his still-unnamed company to star in and produce several movies. Roberts, whose deal at Disney expires at the end of the month, will move her Shoelace Productions to Roth’s company, becoming the first person to join him since he left Disney in January. “I am incredibly excited about joining Joe in this new venture,” said Roberts, whose films include “Pretty Woman,” “Sleeping With the Enemy” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” “We have been friends and business partners for years. . . . He is one of the most creative and forthright people I have ever worked with, and I look forward to the unfolding of this adventure together.”

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Black Film Festival: This year’s Hollywood Black Film Festival--taking place Thursday to Feb. 28 in Culver City (with most screenings at the Mann Culver Plaza 6 Theatres)--will feature a total of 48 short and feature-length films, up from 27 last year. The festival will feature 24 world premieres, including the opening-night film on Thursday: Reggie Rock Bythewood’s “Dancing in September,” in which a black sitcom writer moves up the ranks in the television world and falls in love with a network executive, all against the true-to-life backdrop of network boycotts from a civil rights group. New to the festival this year is a free daylong “Kids Fest” featuring films by and for children, on Thursday at Culver City’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium; and a World Cinema Program featuring black-themed films from Canada, Australia and England.

TV & RADIO

Then Came Midseason: ABC announced Friday that it will debut four spring series and another this summer. Beginning March 22, the network launches “Then Came You” (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.), a comedy about a group of Chicago adults whose lives change when a book editor and room-service waiter fall in love. It replaces “Norm,” which will return to the schedule in time for the May sweeps. “Making the Band,” a reality series about the pop music industry, begins March 24 at 9 p.m. and will be in its regular slot starting March 31 (8:30 p.m.). “Wonderland” (Thursday, 10 p.m.), a drama delving into the lives of doctors in a hospital’s psychiatric and emergency programs, premieres March 30 (Thursday, 10 p.m.). It’s from writer, director and former “Chicago Hope” star Peter Berg. And coming April 11 is “Talk to Me” (Tuesday, 9:30 p.m.), a comedy about a successful talk radio host in New York, starring Kyra Sedgwick. With a six-week run, “Talk to Me” replaces “Sports Night.” At that point, 20 of “Sports Night’s” 22 segments will have aired. An ABC spokesman said the remaining two would be shown either this summer or in a different time slot this season. Meanwhile, the summer offering is “Clerks,” arriving May 31 (Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.), an animated comedy series based on the motion picture from Kevin Smith.

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Marriage at First Sight: Fox executives denied rumors Friday that the couple who were married after seeing each other for the first time on the network’s controversial “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?” actually had been dating for several months. Several radio stations on Thursday were reporting that multimillionaire Rick Rockwell and Darva Conger had met in San Diego and had been seeing each other.

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Sounds of Golf, Music and Managers: Beginning Sunday, KPLS-AM (830), Catholic Family Radio’s Los Angeles outlet, will begin live coverage of final-round action of the Professional Golf Assn. Tour during the 2000 season. On Sunday, it runs from 2 to 4 p.m., thereafter from 1 to 3 p.m. An hourlong magazine show, “Straight From the Tour,” will follow. . . . Beginning Monday at 6 p.m., KGIL-AM (1260) reprises its popular feature “On Broadway,” a complete presentation of a Broadway musical, each weeknight from 6 to 7 p.m. “The Sound of Music” opens the series. The Tuesday-Friday schedule this week is: “The King and I,” “Showboat,” “West Side Story” and “On the Town.” . . . KCSN-FM (88.5) general manager Rene Engel interviews fellow public station general manager Ruth Seymour of KCRW-FM (89.9) on Tuesday for his “Let’s Do Lunch” show at noon.

QUICK TAKES

Violinist Midori will autograph her CDs at the Los Angeles Philharmonic tonight, following her performance of Dvorak’s Violin Concerto. . . . Sharon Stone will be lauded for her “diligence, compassion and dedication” to issues of importance to gays and lesbians, and NBC will be honored for its “accurate portrayals of gays and lesbians” at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual fund-raising gala tonight at the Universal City Hilton. . . . Highlights from the first of seven historic “Omnibus” television episodes that have been restored will be shown Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at the Museum of Tolerance in West Los Angeles. Among those on hand to celebrate the restoration, thanks to the Grammy Foundation’s Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning and the Music on Film Preservation Project, will be Isaac Stern, Midori, bandleader Mitch Miller, composer Lamont Dozier and Bernstein’s son, Alexander Bernstein. . . . Thursday night’s episode of “ER” on NBC drew 39.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the most-watched episode of entertainment programming since the “Seinfeld” finale two years ago.