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

THEATER

Downey as the Dane: Mel Gibson--who played Shakespeare’s tragic Dane on the big screen in 1990--plans to direct a stage production of “Hamlet” starring Robert Downey Jr., probably in January somewhere in Los Angeles, the L.A. spokesman for both stars confirmed Thursday. Still to be determined, however, are the production team, the site and other casting. The stars’ spokesman said the production might be in a small theater, perhaps a 99-seater or even “a loft--the motivation is the work, not the ticket sales.” Gibson and Downey are scheduled to meet for a reading of the work on Sept. 30.

POP/ROCK

Looking Back: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland will present “Lennon: His Life and Work,” a comprehensive exhibit dedicated to John Lennon, from Oct. 9 through September 2001. The show--opening on what would have been Lennon’s 60th birthday--is being mounted with the full cooperation of Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, and the vast majority of the artifacts are from her personal collection. The exhibit--which includes such items as the bed John and Yoko slept in when they first moved to New York, artworks Lennon created as gifts for his Beatles bandmates, and numerous costumes, guitars, handwritten lyric manuscripts and childhood items--is not expected to travel to any other U.S. venue.

TV & MOVIES

Latinos in the News: Latinos are making minuscule advances on the three major networks’ evening newscasts, according to the fifth annual report by the National Assn. of Hispanic Journalists. “This had to do with coverage of the Elian Gonzalez story and the problems of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson at Los Alamos,” said NAHJ President Cecilia Alvear, who is also a producer at NBC News in Burbank. The report, released Thursday, examined stories from 1999 that either dealt with Latino issues or featured Latinos as expert commentators. Such stories constituted just over 1.3% of the networks’ stories last year, up from less than 1% of stories in 1998.

Rose Bowl Kick-Off: Walt Disney Pictures is trying out a new venue for the premiere of its Denzel Washington football movie “Remember the Titans”--the Rose Bowl. Joining the usual Hollywood types for the event Saturday will be some 50,000 football players, cheerleaders, coaches, parents and principals from about 200 Southern California high schools, plus several original players and coaches from the 1971 Virginia high school team on which the film is based. Meanwhile, the film’s producer, Jerry Bruckheimer (“Armageddon,” “Top Gun”), will do a live Web chat Thursday at 3 p.m. at https://chat.yahoo.com.

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Millennium Commission: A piece of music commissioned by 27 orchestras premieres in Cincinnati today, where it will be performed by the Cincinnati Symphony and conducted by Jesus Lopez Cobos. Unlike many new compositions, however, “The Millennium Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra” won’t just be played once and shelved. During the next two seasons, the work will be performed by all 27 orchestras nationwide that united to form the Millennium Commissioning Project that spurred the work’s creation. The composer is Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, who won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1983 for her Symphony No. 1. Scheduled through November are performances in Rockford, Ill.; Westmoreland, Pa.; Rogue Valley, Ore.; Champaign, Ill.; Battle Creek, Mich.; and El Paso, Texas.

QUICK TAKES

Rap music mogul Russell Simmons is organizing an entertainment industry effort to promote Louis Farrakhan’s Million Family March, a get-out-the-vote event scheduled for Oct. 16 in Washington. Other celebrities joining Simmons in heading the entertainment committee--which will create ads encouraging attendance at the march--include Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, Vanessa L. Williams, Sean “Puffy” Combs and Queen Latifah. . . . Cable’s Showtime has announced a new family programming slate, “Showtime Original Pictures for All Ages,” featuring five upcoming TV movies designed for adults and children alike. Those scheduled to star in the films, which will include the directorial debuts of both Eric Stoltz and Gregory Hines, include Mimi Rogers, Juliette Lewis, Michael Clarke Duncan, Stephen Rea and Lolita Davidovich. . . . The Sherman Oaks-based Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble, which specializes in Israeli contemporary dance, is representing the United States this week at the third annual Moscow International Solomon Mikhoels Art Festival, which honors the memory of a Jewish artist-activist murdered under Joseph Stalin’s regime. . . . Actor Jan-Michael Vincent, 56, was sentenced Thursday to 60 days in the Orange County Jail after admitting that he recently violated his probation from a 1996 drunken driving arrest four times, including an arrest in July on a domestic violence allegation. He’s set to begin the jail term next Friday.