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

MOVIES

‘Potter’ Gets Off to a Fast Start at Box Office

Long lines and huge ticket sales greeted Friday’s fervently anticipated “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” And if the very early numbers are any indication, it’s headed for a record weekend opening.

Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.’ distribution head, was encouraged by the turnout for the matinees and the approximately 100 midnight shows across the country.

“I don’t know where we’re going, but I like it,” he said. The 2 p.m. show at a Loews megaplex on Manhattan’s 42nd Street sold $72,000 in tickets, he said; by comparison, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” which opened on the same Friday last year, grossed $7,200 for the same show. Another Loews complex in Nyack, N.Y., he said, sold $26,800 worth of tickets for the first show, whereas “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” which holds the opening-day record of $28 million, took in $32,000 on its first full day at that theater.

According to box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, an opening-day gross of more than $30 million would give “Potter” a shot at an unprecedented $100-million opening weekend. The current opening-weekend record is held by “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” which took in just over $72 million when it opened in 1997.

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TELEVISION

Pacino, Streep in HBO ‘Angels in America’?

Final casting for the HBO version of Tony Kushner’s 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Angels in America” wound up this week--and, according to the New York Times, Al Pacino (Roy Cohn), Meryl Streep (Hannah Pitt) and Emma Thompson (Angel) came out on top.

A story of troubled souls at the end of the millennium, the production will be directed by Mike Nichols, who just received an Emmy Award for his direction of HBO’s movie “Wit.” The project will go into rehearsal in January and is likely to shoot through the spring. No air date has been set.

‘Secret’ Provides Saucy Ratings for ABC

The “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” on ABC Thursday night generated scores of consumer complaints at the Federal Communications Commission but walked away with impressive ratings.

The lingerie chain’s showcase averaged 12.4 million viewers--7 million more than Fox’s “Temptation Island 2,” which slipped more than 20% from its premiere. The special drew more women than men, though ABC’s rating among men age 18 to 49 represented its highest in that hour in more than eight months.

NBC, meanwhile, tried the new sitcom “Scrubs” in the half-hour following “Friends” but fared no better than with “Inside Schwartz,” which has been benched through the November ratings sweeps.

Leno’s Thanksgiving Show Is Military-Based

Jay Leno will be talking turkey with the troops.

The “Tonight Show” host will present a special Thanksgiving Day broadcast for U.S. military personnel via Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. The show, which usually is taped in the afternoon for late-night broadcast, will go live during its 11:35 p.m EST telecast. Pamela Anderson and U2 are among the scheduled guests, and troops will fill the audience.

In December, Leno plans to head overseas to entertain military personnel--highlights to be aired on “Tonight.” His destination is not being released, a network spokeswoman said.

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THEATER

Harris Stepping In for Diller in Escondido

Phyllis Diller, who was to have starred with Jim J Bullock in the play “Dear Sheldon” at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, has dropped out for what the theater describes as personal reasons. She will be replaced for the Nov. 23-25 run by Estelle Harris.

Harris, who played George Costanza’s mother on “Seinfeld,” is cast here as a mother too, with Bullock as her son in the comedy by Sam Bobrick and Julie Stein. (An item about the production in Sunday Calendar this weekend mistakenly still lists Diller in the cast.)

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QUICK TAKES

A new animated Universal Studios logo will surface in theaters on Wednesday and continue throughout 2002. An image of E.T. and Elliot flying on a bicycle across the Universal globe, it is part of the studio’s celebration of the Steven Spielberg classic “E.T.,” which is being reissued in March.... Emmy Award-winning producer Dick Wolf (“Law & Order”) has entered into a new development and producing deal with Studios USA, a division of USA Networks, through August 2006.... Beginning Monday, Peter Bergman, co-founder of the comedy troupe Firesign Theatre, will present “True Confessions of the Real World,” a three-minute spot featuring his take on the news and interviews with imaginary newsmakers, airing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:30 a.m. and at 5:30 p.m. on KPCC-FM (89.3).... “CNBC’s America Now,” a look at the day’s news from a business and economic point of view, will replace “Rivera Live.” Hosted by a rotation of personalities, it will air weeknights at 6 and 9, starting Monday with Maria Bartiromo at the helm.... Kevin James, star of “The King of Queens,” will return as host of the 28th annual People’s Choice awards, to be broadcast from the Pasadena Civic Jan. 13 on CBS.