BEST BETS: OCTOBER 21 - 28, 2001

Movies

Kevin Spacey, far right, is either an alien named Prot from a distant planet called “K-PAX” or a mental patient with an incredibly vivid imagination in a drama from director Iain Softley (“The Wings of the Dove”). Playing Prot’s psychiatrist is Jeff Bridges, right, who’s no stranger to aliens--he earned an Oscar nomination for 1984’s “Starman.” Opens Friday.

Also: The title character in “Donnie Darko,” an all-American teenager in a placid 1988 suburban neighborhood, discovers dark secrets and hypocrisy. Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Mary McDonnell and Patrick Swayze star. Opens Friday.

Theater

Deaf West Theatre, winner of the 2000 Ovation Award for best musical for its production of “Oliver!,” launches its 2001-02 seasonwith “Big River,” the Roger Miller-William Hauptman musical version of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, it is performed in voice and sign language at the North Hollywood venue.

Art

All the presidents’ painters (and sculptors) are going on exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum, starting Friday. “Portraits of the Presidents,” one of the National Portrait Gallery’s biggest audience draws, is on a national tour; it stops in Simi Valley until Jan. 21. The show includes 61 likenesses--among them are Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of George Washington, 20 years in the making; Norman Rockwell’s rendering of Richard Nixon; and one of the last photographs taken of Abraham Lincoln by famed Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner.

Dance

Not only is Rhapsody in Taps celebrating its 20th anniversary Saturday at the Japan America Theatre in L.A., but company artistic director Linda Sohl-Donnell, above, has just been awarded a grant from the James Irvine Foundation to underwrite performances of “Nusantara,” a four-part, 42-minute blend of tap, Balinese dance and Indonesian music. The opening section is on the program Saturday.

Video

Eddie Murphy returns as the San Francisco physician who can talk and walk with the animals in the summer comedy hit “Dr. Dolittle 2.” In this sequel to the 1998 comedy, animals enlist Dr. Dolittle to save a forest. The new item is an improvement over the original “Dr. D” (not the most difficult feat, perhaps, but true nevertheless). With Kristen Wilson, Kyla Pratt, Raven-Symone and Jeffrey Jones. It arrives Tuesday on VHS and DVD.

Pop Music

Leaving trick or treat behind doesn’t mean you give up on Halloween. You just start dancing instead. Proof? Some 20,000 revelers are expected at the L.A. Sports Arena on Saturday for Monster Massive, one of the Southland’s dance-music touchstones. Derrick Carter, above, Junior Sanchez, Mark Grant and Mark Spoon are a few of the famed DJs spinning in their graves.