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

THE ARTS

Autry Museum Endowment: Gene Autry’s widow, Jackie Autry, has established a $100-million endowment for Griffith Park’s Autry Museum of Western Heritage. The gift will help make the museum “a more public and self-supporting institution,” said Autry, who is board chairman of the institution named in her husband’s honor. “These secured funds will allow the museum to cover its basic operations, which in turn will provide it the freedom to focus on raising funds . . . to increase the scope of its exhibitions and its scholarly work.”

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Conductor’s Hat Trick: Conductor Simon Rattle topped the annual Grammophone Magazine awards in London on Monday night, taking home honors for recording of the year and orchestral recording of the year (both for Mahler’s 10th Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic) as well as opera recording of the year (for Szymanowski’s “King Roger” with Britain’s City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra). Among other winners, conductor Antonio Pappano was named artist of the year.

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Bolshoi Renovations Moving Ahead: Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater will close for long-delayed renovations in September 2002. By then, work will have been completed on a new theater next door, where the Bolshoi’s ballet and opera companies will perform while the historic 1825 theater building is being reconstructed, a theater spokeswoman said Tuesday. The Bolshoi companies are then expected to begin performing on both stages when the renovations are completed. Construction on the aging Bolshoi Theater has been delayed by lack of funding; in what he said was an effort to move the renovation project ahead, Russian President Vladimir Putin shook up the Bolshoi’s leadership in August, placing it directly under Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi.

ENTERTAINMENT

Honoring Women in Film: Rochester, N.Y.--the birthplace of the motion picture and the hometown of women’s rights crusader Susan B. Anthony--is teaming up with the Eastman Kodak Co. to organize an annual film festival celebrating the accomplishments of women. The inaugural Picture Fest International is planned for Sept. 27-30, 2001, at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. But while the festival will honor renowned women in the movie industry, even its planners admit that women still have a way to go: Among last year’s top 200 films, only 17% of the producers, directors and cinematographers were women, said producer and festival organizer Catherine Wyler.

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Dr. Laura Reaches Out: Still facing protests from gay-rights activists aiming to dissuade advertisers on her new TV show, radio personality Laura Schlessinger has taken out an ad in today’s “Gay Hollywood” issue of Daily Variety. “In talking about gays and lesbians, some of my words were poorly chosen,” Schlessinger writes in the ad, which closes with “I deeply regret the hurt this situation has caused the gay and lesbian community.” Schlessinger issued a similar apology in March but backed away from it during a subsequent newspaper interview. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was unimpressed by the ad, accusing Schlessinger of playing a “cat-and-mouse game of words” and still blaming others for distorting her comments. The format of her “Dr. Laura” TV show was revised last week but is still drawing poor ratings.

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Springfield Not Charged: No charges will be filed against singer-actor Rick Springfield, who was arrested in Malibu last month on suspicion of spousal abuse, prosecutors said Tuesday. Springfield was arrested after his wife, Barbara Porter, told her sister he had struck her in the face and thrown her to the floor during an argument. But Porter now maintains that she lied about the incident, prosecutors said. Springfield had told sheriff’s deputies that he grabbed his wife in self-defense after she threw a jar at him.

QUICK TAKES

After mixed reviews in Boston, “Seussical,” the $10-million musical celebrating the characters of Dr. Seuss, has delayed its Broadway opening by three weeks to allow for extensive revisions. It will now open at Richard Rodgers Theater on Nov. 30 (previews will start Oct. 29). . . . Country singer Chris LeDoux, 51, is recovering at the University of Nebraska Medical Center after undergoing a liver transplant Saturday. He had been on the organ transplant waiting list since being diagnosed two months ago with a disease that blocks the bile ducts. . . . Comedian-turned-civil rights activist Dick Gregory was honored Monday at Washington’s Kennedy Center. Gregory, 67, who was credited with helping open doors for black entertainers, is battling lymphoma. . . . Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist Slash will sign autographs at Tower Records Sunset at 5 p.m. today to tout the release of “Ain’t Life Grand,” by his band, Slash’s Snakepit. . . . Director Spike Lee (“Bamboozled”) will do an online chat Thursday at 10 a.m. at https://www.cnn.com/chat. . . . “Life & Times” co-host Hugh Hewitt, nationally syndicated talk-show host Michael Medved and American Spectator publisher Terry Eastland will be on KIEV-AM (870) tonight at 7:30 for a post-debate round-table discussion. . . . Actresses Salma Hayek and Michelle Rodriguez (“Girlfight”) were seen lunching at Cafe Med on Sunset last week. Sources say Hayek was impressed with Rodriguez’s role in the boxing movie and wants her to join the cast of Hayek’s Frida Kahlo project at Miramax.