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

MOVIES

It’s Deja Vu All Over Again

Fox Searchlight is joining Columbia Pictures in the doghouse, caught in the act of using an employee in a 1998 testimonial ad. According to Daily Variety, Caren Lipson, then-executive assistant to Fox Searchlight’s vice president of creative advertising, was cast in a commercial for “Waking Ned Divine.” Posing with her “date,” she called the film “hysterical.” Studio higher-ups point out that “Waking Ned Devine” was released under a previous regime. “No one who works here has any firsthand knowledge of it,” said a Fox spokeswoman.

Taking a Stand for Rhinos

Actress Charlize Theron has appealed to a Virginia businessman to spare the life of a rare black rhinoceros to be sold for use in a hunt outside Johannesburg, South Africa. The owner, David Laylin, will be paid $60,000 for the animal from a big-game hunter. “If you agree to release [the rhino] to a sanctuary, I will agree to meet you in South Africa to celebrate her freedom.” Theron, a native South African, wrote in a letter to Laylin, which was released by the Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He’d be pleased to sell the rhino to a conservation group, said Laylin, but can’t afford to give her away. “She’s a wonderful animal,” he said. “The last thing I want is to have her...blown away.”

THE ARTS

Dog Days at the Bolshoi

In an open newspaper letter to Russia’s culture minister, the former artistic director of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater said the company is falling apart because of poor state funding, blatant mismanagement and government obsession with entertainment at the cost of serious music. “I see it everywhere, but Russia, alas, is the leader,” Gennady Rozhdestvensky said of the trend. The conductor, who resigned from the legendary ballet and opera theater last week, added that artists were rejecting engagements and skipping rehearsals because their fees are so low. Such behavior is tolerated by management to avoid defections to the West, he claimed. Rozhdestvensky was appointed in a shake-up when the government took control of the 225-year-old institution last year. Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi called the resignation a “regretful but not tragic occurrence” and attributed his action to poor reviews.

QUICK TAKES

Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has been forced to withdraw as conductor of a new production of Verdi’s “Falstaff” in Aix-en-Provence, France, in July. Suffering from an ear infection, he has been ordered by doctors not to fly.... Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse enjoyed its best box office weekend in the theater’s history with “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” featuring Uta Hagen and David Hyde Pierce, grossing approximately $50,000 from Friday through Sunday. The play has been extended through July 22.... And, by popular demand, the Reprise! Broadway’s Best production of “Hair” at the Wadsworth Theatre in Brentwood has added a 7 p.m. show Sunday--the final performance of the brief run.