Best Bets February 4-10, 2001

Movies

Steve Zahn, above right, and Jack Black, center, go to great extremes in the comedy “Saving Silverman,” to keep their best pal Jason Biggs from marrying a coldhearted and calculating Amanda Peet. They even recruit Neil Diamond for their mission. Opens wide Friday.

Pop Music

With the Beatles CD reminding the world that kids don’t hold a monopoly on rock, what better time for another blast from a bygone g-g-g-eneration? Reprising their 1995 teaming, Billy Joel and Elton Johnl, below, package their catalogs into a baby boomer’s dream show--and don’t be surprised if the piano men throw in a Beatles tune as well. At the Forum on Tuesday, Friday and next Sunday.

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The playful R&B; trio Lucy Pearl is up for a Grammy for best R&B; duo or group performance for “Dance Tonight,” but the Lucy Pearl that plays the Knitting Factory Hollywood on Monday won’t exactly be the one that made that record. The show marks its first L.A. appearance with new member Joi, who recently replaced Dawn Robinson in the lineup.

Music

Isaac Stern had to skip his birthday celebration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in October due to heart surgery. But after a slight slowdown, the violinist, who turned 80 last year, is back at work. He’ll convene one of his famous student encounters at USC this week, highlighted by a Friday concert with the student players.

Jazz

James Carney, an adventurous pianist and composer who won the 1999 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composers Competition, will be performing original music this Tuesday at the Skirball Cultural Center in a trio with bassist Todd Sickafoose and drummer Dan Morris.

Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will highlight some of the best-known examples of Japanese printmaking in “The Max Palevsky Collection of Japanese Woodblock Prints,” opening Thursday at the Pavilion for Japanese Art. The exhibition will include 50 prints from the noted collection including Kitigawa Utamaro’s “Needle Work Interrupted by a Cat” (circa 1797-98).

Dance

Integrating video sequences and live-action scenes edited as if they were video clips, Sasha Waltz’s “Allee der Kosmonauten” depicts life in contemporary Berlin using a radically updated version of surreal German dance-theater techniques--plus a set and video installation designed by New York artist Elliot Caplan. The result is on view at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Video

Robert Altman is in fine form with the romantic comedy “Dr. T and the Women.” Richard Gere plays a handsome gynecologist with several demanding patients, a troubled wife (Farrah Fawcett), two daughters (Kate Hudson and Tara Reid) and a wisecracking nurse (Shelley Long). Into the mix comes a beautiful golf pro (Helen Hunt) with whom Dr. T falls in love. The comedy arrives Tuesday on video and DVD.