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

MOVIES

Thanks, but No Thanks: The mother of murder victim Teena Brandon is angry at Oscar-winner Hilary Swank for thanking her daughter during her acceptance speech Sunday. Swank, who portrayed Brandon in “Boys Don’t Cry,” thanked “Brandon Teena,” the name Brandon had used while posing as a man before being murdered when her true identity was discovered. “That set me off,” JoAnn Brandon said Tuesday. “She should not stand up there and thank my child. I get tired of people taking credit for what they don’t know.” JoAnn Brandon also criticized the film for failing to relate that her daughter was sexually molested by a man when she was a girl. She said that caused Brandon to live as a man “so no other man could touch her.”

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Right Song at the Wrong Time: “Everybody’s Talkin’,” the theme from the Oscar-winning film “Midnight Cowboy” that led off Burt Bacharach’s medley of Academy Award-winning songs during Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, should not have been included. A spokeswoman for the show confirmed that the song, which was performed on the telecast by Garth Brooks, was not nominated for a best song Oscar, although the film won for best picture in 1969. The spokeswoman said the medley probably should have been introduced as great songs from Oscar-winning films.

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“Sixth Sense” Cracks Top 10: “The Sixth Sense” may have been shut out of the winner’s circle at Sunday’s Oscars, but it has reached a benchmark of another sort: With a domestic gross of $290.3 million so far, it has surpassed “The Empire Strikes Back” ($290.27 million) to become the 10th top-grossing U.S. film of all time, distributor Walt Disney Motion Pictures said Tuesday. The film’s overseas gross-to-date has reached $353.4 million, making it the seventh-biggest international release of all time, the studio said.

TV & RADIO

Advocacy Group Assails ‘Wonderland’: The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has written to both ABC and actor-director Peter Berg to protest “Wonderland,” Berg’s new drama revolving around a fictional New York mental hospital, which premieres Thursday on ABC. The Arlington, Va.-based advocacy group alleges that the series--which has drawn positive early reviews--poses a “potentially dangerous threat” to those with mental illness and “may create an increased risk of suicides” among viewers. The advocacy group--which likened focusing the show on those in a mental institution to setting an all-black drama at a welfare office--said Tuesday that the program “promotes stigma by focusing on the most extreme, hopeless cases” and shows “people with mental illnesses as killers, crazies and freaks.” ABC had no comment, and series creator Berg, who spent time in real mental hospitals to research the program, had no response by press time.

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Dr. Laura Losing Advertisers?: One national advertiser has chosen not to renew commercials for Laura Schlessinger’s syndicated radio program, which airs locally on KFI-AM (640). More.com, an online pharmacy, which has recently completed a round of ads on the show, will no longer advertise there, according to a spokeswoman. “Some of our customers and employees brought to our attention the comments Dr. Laura had made and we were concerned about alienating some of our customer base,” said Grainne Sweetman, corporate communications manager. This comes on the heels of protests by StopDrLaura.com, a national coalition and Web site that was launched March 1 to protest Paramount’s plans to syndicate a TV show hosted by Schlessinger this fall. The dispute involves the host’s positions on gays and lesbians, including referring to them as “biological errors.” A Schlessinger spokeswoman, meanwhile, could neither confirm nor deny the report. Schlessinger has insisted she never made an anti-gay commentary.

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Priestley--Five Days in Jail: An attorney for actor Jason Priestley entered a no-contest plea on his client’s behalf Tuesday to a misdemeanor DUI charge stemming from a Dec. 3 car crash in the Hollywood Hills that totaled his Porsche and broke one of his best friend’s arms. In a plea bargain, Priestley, 30, was sentenced to five days in jail, three years probation and three months in an alcohol-counseling program. The former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star--who will serve his jail time in a private correctional facility in Echo Park rather than in county jail--also had his license suspended for a year. The judge said Priestley--who is in England doing a play and did not attend Tuesday’s hearing--could face a yearlong jail term if he violates his probation.

QUICK TAKES

CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, 42, gave birth in Washington Monday to her first child, a boy named Darius John Rubin. Her husband is James P. Rubin, chief spokesman for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. . . . Female network executives, including Carole Black (Lifetime), Susanne Daniels (WB), Debra Lee (BET) and Nancy Tillem (CBS), will speak at “TV Talk 2000: A Discussion With Women of This Millennium,” a free event, Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood.