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

MOVIES

Stricken Eszterhas Delivers Mea Culpa

Joe Eszterhas, the flamboyant screenwriter of guilty-pleasure movies such as “Basic Instinct” (1992) and “Showgirls” (1995), said Friday that he was diagnosed with throat cancer 18 months ago.

Though he was a “militant smoker” who cultivated a “rock ‘n’ roll” image, he now regrets making cigarettes so integral to his movie plots, he wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece. By glamorizing smoking, he said, his hands--and Hollywood’s--are “bloody.”

“I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings,” Eszterhas said. “I am admitting this only because I have made a deal with God. Spare me, I said, and I will try to stop others from committing the same crimes I did.”

Since having much of his larynx removed, he’s “alive but maimed,” Eszterhas said, explaining that he no longer has trouble swallowing or breathing but has some difficulty talking. He is being treated at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

‘Kane’ Continues Streak in British Film Poll

For the 40th year running, Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” took top honors in a British Film Institute poll of 144 international movie critics and directors.

Among the critics, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” took the second spot, followed by Jean Renoir’s “La Regle du Jeu” (“The Rules of the Game”). In the directors’ ranks, Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II” came in second and third.

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Imax Moves to the Mainstream

In an effort to boost profits, Imax Cinemas has signed on with Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency, BBC News reports. The goal: getting mainstream movies released on its large-screen format at the same time they hit your neighborhood theater.

Until recently, the company dealt almost exclusively in science or nature movies specially shot for Imax Cinemas on film much larger than the normal 35-millimeter film. Converting films to its format costs about $3 million apiece, but that sum, says Imax, is significantly reduced by the technology currently available.

Imax had previously convinced the Walt Disney Co. to convert “Fantasia 2000” and “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) to its high-tech format, which offers images on screens up to 10 stories high. The Disney cartoon “Treasure Planet” will come out on Imax at the same time it goes into general release. And the Oscar-winning “Apollo 13” (1995) will be re-released on the really big screen later this year.

Imax hopes that CAA’s talent relationships will help it land up to six high-profile movies a year.

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THE ARTS

MOCA’s Warhol Show Is a Profitable One

The Museum of Contemporary Art has yet to meet attendance projections for its “Andy Warhol Retrospective” but it will make a hefty profit on the widely publicized exhibition, which ends Aug. 18.

Though MOCA expected attendance of about 200,000 at the specially ticketed show, the figure stood at 145,000 as of Aug. 3. Nonetheless, the museum expects to net $2.7 million from contributions and ticket sales. And its shop has racked up $1.1 million in sales during the exhibition.

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QUICK TAKES

CBS has picked up a drama script by Judith McCreary focusing on Lakers star Shaquille O’Neal and a fictional teammate who becomes a coach after suffering a career-ending injury, Variety reports. O’Neal, one of the executive producers, is due to appear in the pilot and in periodic guest spots through the series....CNN anchor Willow Bay and Walt Disney Co. President Robert Iger became the parents of a boy on July 29.... Britney Spears says she’ll be taking a six-month leave from performing.... Sony Pictures and Revolution Studios are moving Paul Thomas Anderson’s romantic comedy “Punch Drunk Love” from awards-candidate-heavy December to less-crowded October. The film, which stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, will open in Los Angeles and New York on Oct. 1.