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

THE ARTS

Monet Coup: Sotheby’s will auction off one of Claude Monet’s celebrated “Haystacks” paintings in London in June. Owned by a French family, the painting went on view in London on Thursday in what Sotheby’s said is its first public viewing since 1895. The 1890 painting, which Sotheby’s expects to sell for between $7.2 million and $10 million, depicts two large haystacks creating long shadows in evening sunlight, and is one of eight Monet “Haystacks” remaining in private hands. Fifteen “Haystacks” paintings are housed in major museums throughout the world.

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Space Sounds: Dennis Tito, the California aero-space-engineer-turned-investment-banker who’s spending $20 million to blast off Saturday with Russian cosmonauts on a Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station, plans to take the arts along with him. Tito, a Los Angeles Opera board member, will take the space station crew a selection of opera CDs, including works by Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and Strauss.

TV & MOVIES

Identity Questions: The Central Intelligence Agency said Thursday that a man interviewed on CNN twice this week about the war on drugs in light of the downing of a missionary plane in Peru had misrepresented himself as a former CIA agent. The agency said that Kenneth Bucchi, identified on CNN as a “former CIA narcotics officer,” never worked for the agency in any capacity. CNN twice on Wednesday offered viewers an explanation--but not an apology--for interviewing Bucchi. The network said Bucchi had published a book about the CIA and had done numerous previous TV and radio interviews without challenge from the government agency. Bucchi charged that the CIA worked together with Colombian drug traffickers to wipe out small smugglers, and in return let the big cartels maintain a limited flow of cocaine into the country--claims the CIA has denied. Bucchi, who said he worked for the CIA while in the U.S. Air Force, called the CIA’s denial of his employment “Discredit 101,” but added that he would do the same if he were in their position. CNN said it did not check out Bucchi’s claim of CIA employment before the interview, but noted that the agency routinely does not reveal whether someone has worked for them.

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Get Ready for the Onslaught: CBS will follow its three hours of “Survivor: The Australian Outback” May 3 finale programming with another special, “Survivor: Back From the Outback,” on May 10. The hour-long program will follow the 16 contestants as they return home and deal with their newfound fame. Meanwhile, all 16 castaways will be on the syndicated “Hollywood Squares” the week of May 14-18, and cast-off Jerri Manthey will appear--as herself--on the May 28 edition of CBS’ “The Young and the Restless.” And in case anyone is missing the first “Survivor” crew, Cable’s E! will premiere “ ‘Survivor’: The E! True Hollywood Story,” a reminiscence of the original series, at 9 p.m. on May 2, the night before the “Outback” finale.

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Happy Anniversary: Hollywood’s El Capitan Theatre will celebrate its 75th anniversary next month by screening 10 classic films that all premiered there. The program kicks off next Thursday and Friday with the debut showings of a new 35-millimeter print of Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane,” which marked the El Capitan’s bow as a movie theater in 1941. Other films in the series are “Rear Window” (May 5), “Doctor Zhivago” (May 6), “Vertigo” (May 7), “Sunset Boulevard” (May 8), “Uptown Saturday Night” (May 9), “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (May 10), “Gigi” (May 11), “The Music Man” (May 12) and “Sabrina” (May 13). The films will screen two to four times each day, with the evening showings to be preceded by panel discussions of historians and people who worked on the films.

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‘Traffic’ Jam Solved: Attorneys for an exclusive Cincinnati private school say they have reached an undisclosed settlement with USA Films over Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar winner “Traffic,” averting a lawsuit. Cincinnati Country Day School had threatened suit because a fictional character in the movie, the drug-addicted daughter of an American drug czar, is identified as a student of the school. School officials said that filmmakers never sought permission to use the 70-year-old school’s name.

QUICK TAKES

Actress Sharon Stone will narrate “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” an animated children’s series based on the book of the same name that’s slated to premiere on cable’s HBO Family in December. . . . Cable’s Fox News Channel with join forces with Forbes magazine to co-produce a weekly business news program. “Forbes on Fox” will debut May 12, airing Saturdays at 8 a.m., and will look at the week ahead and how the events might impact viewers’ investments and finances. . . . Los Angeles’ first American Indian film, TV and new media festival is being planned for May 2002. Festival founder Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman (“Dances With Wolves”) will kick off planning for the festival by holding a series of panel discussions and screenings at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater on May 4 from 3 to 9 p.m. . . . “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” director Ang Lee, the first Taiwanese to win an Academy Award, has received a $30,000 cash prize for his film from the Taiwanese government. He plans to donate the money to his high school, in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan. . . . The Backstreet Boys’ first network TV special--including concert footage taped at Los Angeles’ Staples Center--will air May 30 on CBS. . . . Actress Halle Berry and her husband, musician Eric Benet, have sued the Star tabloid for libel for describing their marriage as “on the rocks.” The couple, wed in January, seek $5 million in damages. . . . “Saturday Night Live” regular Jimmy Fallon and actress Kirsten Dunst will co-host the 2001 MTV Movie Awards, on the cable channel June 7. Oscar winner “Gladiator” tops the contenders with five nominations, including best movie, best villain and best fight. . . . The Blink-182 concert scheduled for this coming Wednesday at the Hollywood Palladium has been rescheduled for May 11 to accommodate the band’s video-shooting schedule. Tickets for the original date will be honored.