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

MOVIES

‘Gangs’ Pushed Back in Release Schedule Flux

Miramax Films is the latest studio to shuffle its holiday schedule following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The national release of Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York,” set in downtown Manhattan during the 1860s draft riots, has been postponed to 2002. The film, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio, was previously scheduled for a Dec. 21 release.

“Gangs” was expected to be a top Oscar contender for Miramax, which, for the past nine years, has earned a best picture nomination. The film may still be released in New York and Los Angeles before year’s end to qualify for Oscar consideration, but if not, the studio’s highest-profile contender is likely to be “The Shipping News,” starring Kevin Spacey and directed by Lasse Hallstrom, director of Miramax’s last two best picture nominees, “Chocolat” and “The Cider House Rules.”

Stone Released From San Francisco Hospital

Sharon Stone has been released from a San Francisco hospital where she was treated for a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or bleeding on the brain, her publicist, Cindi Berger, said Tuesday. The actress is expected to make a full recovery, Berger said.

Stone was admitted to the hospital Sept. 29 for what was initially thought might be a brain aneurysm. No aneurysm was found, Berger said. Stone underwent an endovascular coil embolization--a procedure designed to eliminate blood flow through the dissected artery and eliminate further complications--and went home Sunday.

“Sharon Stone is completely intact neurologically and she will have no medical restrictions on her personal or professional activities,” said Dr. Michael Lawton, chief of cerebrovascular surgery at UC San Francisco.

Terrorism--Unsuitable for the Big Screen?

Writer-director Oliver Stone (“Platoon,” “JFK”) says he doesn’t believe terrorism should be out of bounds as a subject for filmmakers. “[If they’re] well done, the faces are real, and we portray the Arab side, then people will come,” Stone told a panel at the New York Film Festival. “I don’t buy that everybody will only go to see ‘Zoolander.”’

Maybe so, but making topical films will be an uphill battle, predicted independent producer Tom Pollock, former chairman of the MCA Motion Picture Group. “As hard as it was before to get studios who aren’t interested in sending messages [to make political films], it’s going to be 10 times harder now,” he said.

New Line Cinema’s Robert Shaye seconded that notion. “I got a letter the other day which said the world needs Hobbits--and that may be true,” he said.

Man Charged in Death of Afghan Filmmaker

Afghan filmmaker Jawed Wassel never made it to last week’s New York premiere of his “FireDance,” an examination of the plight of refugees under the Taliban regime. The next day, police discovered the director’s body--stabbed, beaten and dismembered.

Authorities said that Nathan Powell, a producer and investor in the film, admitted to the crime and was charged with second-degree murder on Saturday.Money--not anti-Afghan feeling--is believed to have triggered the incident. Bruce Hathaway, “FireDance’s” composer, said that two of the film’s backers died in the World Trade Center attacks, leading to financial strains.

DOCtober Serves Up Kubrick, Burns

DOCtober 2001, the international documentary film festival, will last for two weeks instead of one this year and will take place at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex Theatre in Santa Monica rather than in Pasadena. It runs Oct. 17-30.

Opening night will feature “Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures,” while the second week opens with “Price for Peace,” an examination of World War II from the viewpoints of American and Japanese participants discussing the event. Filmed by Oscar-winner James Moll (“The Last Days”), it was produced for the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, where it will premiere Dec. 7.

Also on the agenda: Ken Burns’ “Mark Twain”; Penelope Spheeris’ “We Sold Our Souls to Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “In Search of Peace Part One: 1948-1967,” a look at the first two decades of Israel’s existence by Academy Award-winner Richard Trank (“The Long Way Home”).

PEOPLE

Celebs Pitching in to Help Raise Money

Mick Jagger, Aerosmith, ‘N Sync, Ricky Martin, KISS, Al Green, James Brown and the Backstreet Boys are among those who will perform at an Oct. 21 benefit concert for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. Dubbed “United We Stand” and produced by Clear Channel Entertainment, the eight-hour event will take place at Washington’s RFK Stadium.

QUICK TAKES

“Peter Jennings Reporting: Minefield--The United States and the Muslim World,” a TV program analyzing the Taliban, Islam and America through the eyes of its allies, will air on ABC Thursday at 10 p.m.... Miriam Makeba has postponed her Oct. 25 concert at the Irvine Barclay Theatre because of “travel problems.” Tickets will either be refunded, exchanged or honored if the event is rescheduled .... Singer-songwriter John Fogerty and his wife, Julie, became the parents of a girl, Kelsey Cameron, on Oct. 5.