BEST BETS: OCT. 7-13, 2001

Movies

That masked man stealing from the rich and giving to the poor is neither the Lone Ranger nor Zorro ... it’s “Iron Monkey,” a mythical Chinese legend brought to the screen by director Yuen Wo Ping, who choreographed the action in “The Matrix” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Above: Donnie Yen, left, and Yan Yee Kwan. Opens Friday.

Jazz

Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove bring “Directions in Music,” their tribute to the music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis on the anniversary of their 75th birthdays, to the Southland with performances Thursday at USC and next Sunday in Cerritos.

Music

Pianist Irina Schnittke, widow of composer Alfred Schnittke, appears on consecutive nights at the Eclectic Orange Festival this week. On Monday in the Irvine Barclay Theatre, she is soloist with the touring Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, conducted by Misha Rachlevsky. On Tuesday, she performs Schnittke’s Piano Quintet with the Kronos Quartet, right, in Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Theater

Cornerstone Theatre’s new community-based, audience-participatory work, “Zones,” is set at a planning commission hearing over a proposed piece of sacred architecture. Opens Saturday at Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights and tours other site-specific faith venues. It will run in concert with Cornerstone’s “Festival of Faith” short play festival opening Oct. 18.

Art

Roberto Sebastian Matta’s singular vision and his effect on modern art in the U.S. are the focus of an exhibition opening today at the Grand Avenue galleries of the Museum of Contemporary Art. “Matta in America” consists of work from 1939 to 1948, the first 10 years of the Chilean-born artist’s career, when he was living in New York City, hanging out with the artists who would later come to be called Abstract Expressionists, and creating an artistic language that linked his inner universe with the world around him.

Dance

Emeralds, rubies and diamonds swirl and sparkle at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Friday and Saturday when Miami City Ballet dances George Balanchine’s three-part “Jewels.” Also next Sunday at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara. Above: Franklin Gamero, left, and Iliana Lopez.

Pop Music

Eddie Palmieri is a legendary salsa musician, but he is also much more. And that’s the point of the pianist’s two-night gig at the Conga Room in Los Angeles starting on Thursday. Each evening will spotlight a different facet of Palmieri’s music, from his early salsa years to his innovations as an idiosyncratic Latin jazz stylist.

Video

Helen Fielding’s delightful best-seller, “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” has been transformed into an equally pleasing movie starring Texas-born Renee Zellweger--with a perfect British accent--as a slightly overweight thirtysomething Londoner looking for love. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, who were mentioned in Fielding’s novel, play the men in Bridget’s life. It arrives Tuesday on VHS and DVD.