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

THE ARTS

Jackson, Struthers Team for Patsy Cline Show

The musical “Always ... Patsy Cline” will open a commercial run at L.A.’s Coronet Theatre Oct. 7, starring Christa Jackson as the country singer and Sally Struthers as her friend Louise Seger.

The two-actor show features 22 Cline songs, backed by Eddie Baytos and His Band, and a script by Ted Swindley. This production is being produced and directed by Sharon Rosen. Other productions played La Mirada in 1999 and Fullerton in 2000.

Conlon Gives Noticeat Paris Opera

James Conlon, chief conductor of the Paris Opera since 1995, said Tuesday he will leave his job at the end of his contract in July 2004.

“I feel that by 2004, which will mark the end of nine seasons, it will be time both for me, and for the Paris Opera, to look forward to something new,” Conlon said in a statement issued by his New York publicist.

Conlon, a 51-year-old native New Yorker, was hired by the Paris Opera in early 1995 and became musical advisor that May. He also is music director of the Cincinnati May Festival, a post he has held since 1979, and is in his 13th and final season as general music director of the city of Cologne, Germany.

Latino Life on Viewin Boston Exhibit

Actor Edward James Olmos is one of the creators of a new photography exhibit at the Boston Public Library, “Americanos: Latino Life in the United States,” that celebrates the diversity of the nation’s Hispanic population.

The Smithsonian Institution-sponsored exhibit was put together after 32 photographers fanned out across the country to capture the lives of Latinos at playgrounds, on city streets, on the banks of the Rio Grande, at flamenco bars, at work and in places of worship. One of the exhibit’s 120 photographs, of a child whose brow is furrowed in concentration over a chess board, is among Olmos’ personal favorites.

“When I first saw it, I started to cry--something so simple, so basic,” the 54-year-old actor said. “Who puts chess with Latinos? Nobody. Or water polo? Or surfing? You just don’t, in the U.S., put them together.”

Cleveland Museumof Art Plans Expansion

Architect Rafael Vinoly has been selected to design a new addition for the Cleveland Museum of Art, which the facility describes as its first major expansion in more than 30 years. Groundbreaking on the project, which will add about 102,000 square feet of space, is scheduled for summer 2004.

Vinoly, a native of Uruguay, also has done designs for a performing arts center in Philadelphia, convention centers in Pittsburgh and Boston, and the New York City hall that will be the new home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

PEOPLE

Jewish Image Awards Will Honor Hiller

Director Arthur Hiller (“Love Story,” “Man of La Mancha,” “Plaza Suite”) will be honored for lifetime achievement at the first-ever Jewish Image Awards. They are being presented by the Los Angeles Entertainment Industry Council of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture to honor what the organization deems “outstanding work reflecting the Jewish heritage through film and television.”

The awards were to have been handed out at a luncheon in Beverly Hills today but the event was postponed after the terrorist attacks on the East Coast Tuesday morning. A new date was not immediately set.

Martin Has Only a ‘Dim Memory’ of Heche

Steve Martin was all smiles promoting his new film, “Novocaine,” at the Toronto International Film Festival until a reporter brought up his past relationship with actress Anne Heche.

Martin’s smile disappeared when asked at a news conference about Heche’s comments last week in an interview with Barbara Walters about emotional problems she has had.

“The whole thing with me and her happened eight years ago,” Martin said. “It’s like a dim, dim memory.”

Pressed on Heche’s admission that she was hearing voices at that time, Martin said only: “No, I didn’t have any experience with that at all, sorry.”

Hefner to Be Roastedby NYC Friars Club

Drew Carey, Gilbert Gottfried and Cedric the Entertainer are among the comedians lined up to roast Hugh Hefner at the New York Friars Club’s annual Celebrity Roast.

Jimmy Kimmel will be the host of the black-tie event, set for Sept. 29 at the New York Hilton Hotel. A one-hour edited version of the skewering of the 75-year-old Playboy magazine founder is scheduled to air Nov. 4 on Comedy Central.

QUICK TAKES

Synergy at work: The first season of “The Chris Isaak Show,” which initially was shown on Showtime, will be repeated on VH1 in November. The second season begins on Showtime in January. Both outlets are owned by Viacom, which also produces the series about real-life singer Isaak, his bandmates and a group of fictional characters....

Reruns of the Emmy Award-winning series “Northern Exposure” begin on Hallmark Channel U.S. Oct. 1.