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

MOVIES

Battle of the Leading Men: Universal Pictures, facing a box-office showdown for its romantic fantasy “The Family Man,” has opted to have the film’s star, Nicolas Cage, face off with Tom Hanks rather than Mel Gibson. Backing away from what looked like one of the key contests of the holiday season, Universal moved the opening of “The Family Man” from Dec. 15, when it would have faced competition from another romantic fantasy--Paramount Pictures’ Gibson vehicle “What Women Want.” Instead, “Family Man” will drop back to Dec. 22--the same day Hanks’ “Cast Away” (from 20th Century Fox) hits theaters. What motivated the move? There were concerns that moviegoers would find “The Family Man” and “What Women Want” too similar, because both male leads gain supernatural powers (Cage plops into an alternate reality; Gibson is suddenly able to hear everything women think). And while Hanks, a two-time Oscar winner, is a formidable box-office draw, anyone who’s seen his scraggly looks in “Cast Away” promo shots knows it’s not your classic date movie. Meanwhile, another box-office fight to watch takes place Nov. 17, when Universal’s Jim Carrey blitzkrieg “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” vies with Paramount’s “Rugrats in Paris--The Movie” and Columbia Pictures’ “The 6th Day,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

TELEVISION

‘Dr. Laura’ on the Ropes: In what amounts to a potential death knell for radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s new TV show, CBS television stations in several major cities--including New York and Los Angeles--will shift the program next week from plum afternoon time slots to 2 a.m. The move is especially damaging because it comes from a sister company: Both CBS and the program’s distributor, Paramount Television, are owned by Viacom. Ratings for “Dr. Laura” have been low, and stations have had difficulty selling ad time because of a campaign against the show by gay-rights activists. KCBS-TV will replace the show at 3 p.m. with the courtroom series “Curtis Court,” hoping to provide a stronger lead-in to “Judge Judy,” which the station acquired this fall.

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A New Seinfeld: Jerry Seinfeld is a daddy. His wife, Jessica Sklar, gave birth to a baby girl Tuesday in New York. “Both parents and baby are doing great,” Seinfeld’s spokeswoman said. The baby, named Sascha Seinfeld, is the first child for the couple, who were married last December.

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Live ‘Drew’: Tonight’s “Drew Carey Show” will be live, with the cast doing three different performances, one for the Eastern and Central time zones, one for the Mountain zone, and yet another for the Pacific region. The ABC show also did a live episode last year, but this year it will take on a “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” twist, as improvisational elements are thrown into the mix, with audience members among those who will make last-minute story suggestions for the actors. Not surprisingly, some additional “Whose Line” performers will take part in the episode, including Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood.

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Blurring the ‘Line’s: Meanwhile, ABC has ordered 66 more episodes, or three more seasons, of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,” while at the same time buying exclusive repeat rights to the improvisational comedy. In a novel aspect of the deal, ABC can run all existing episodes of the Drew Carey-hosted series up to eight times--a move that anticipates the advent of digital television, when the networks expect to be able to split their signals into multiple channels.

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Oprah Sued: Three women have sued Oprah Winfrey for more than $75,000, alleging she misrepresented them as victims of domestic violence. Tracy Hoaglund, Margaret Mitchell and Gloria Toney said they agreed to appear in a segment about a computer training workshop run by a woman who also works with victims of abuse. None of the three women has ever been a victim of domestic violence, and they did not discuss the subject in their interviews, the lawsuit said. However, the interview was done at a battered women’s shelter, and when the show aired in April, the women claim, they were presented as abuse victims. The suit says they have since been treated differently by “friends, co-workers and even complete strangers.” A spokeswoman for Winfrey and her production company, Harpo Entertainment Group, said Winfrey wasn’t aware of the lawsuit and declined to comment.

QUICK TAKES

Actor Harrison Ford and wife Melissa Mathison announced Tuesday that they have “been living apart for the past month” and “sincerely hope that we can work out our differences.” The two have been married for 17 years. . . . Confirming rumors sparked by her TV character’s surprise announcement of impending motherhood, “The Practice” star Camryn Manheim has told People magazine that she is expecting a baby in April and plans to raise the child as a single mother. Manheim, 39, has not disclosed the father’s identity. Manheim’s co-star, Kelli Williams, is also pregnant both in real life and on the series. . . . “The Lion King,” which is booked through at least October 2001 at Los Angeles’ Pantages Theatre, is set for the first stop of its national tour. The Julie Taymor-directed Disney production will open in spring 2002 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Buell Theatre. Additional dates and venues have not been announced. . . . Singer Dawn Robinson has left Lucy Pearl, the R&B; trio she started earlier this year with Raphael Saadiq and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, to begin work on a solo album. Robinson, formerly with En Vogue, has been replaced in Lucy Pearl by Joi, a singer who has released two solo albums and worked with such acts as Goodie Mob and OutKast.