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

MOVIES

British Academy Nods Announced

The very British “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (called “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in England) failed to make the list of nominations for best film in the Orange British Academy Film Awards nominations, announced Monday at BAFTA headquarters in London. The junior-wizard epic did, however, make the nominations list for best British film. Joining “Harry Potter” on the nominee list for the Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year are “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “Gosford Park,” “Iris” and “Me Without You.”

“The Lord of the Rings” and “Moulin Rouge,” both of which made the best film list, led with 12 nominations each. The rest of the film nominees were “Gosford Park” (nine nominations), “Amelie” (nine), “A Beautiful Mind” and “Shrek.”

“Ring” nominations included English stage veteran Ian McKellen for his turn as Gandalf the Grey. “Moulin Rouge” star Nicole Kidman got an actress nomination, not for “Moulin” but the eerie ghost story “The Others.” Russell Crowe received an actor nomination for “A Beautiful Mind”; Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson both were nominated for “In the Bedroom”; Renee Zellweger was selected for “Bridget Jones.” British acting nominees include Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, Kate Winslet, Colin Firth and Hugh Bonneville.

THEATER

Hagen Sidelined From Broadway Run by Illness

The planned Broadway production of “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” starring Uta Hagen as a lonely widow in a Florida retirement community and David Hyde Pierce as her dance teacher, will be delayed until next season due to Hagen’s current health problems. Although press representatives for the show would offer no specifics on her illness, it was reported that she suffered a stroke following the highly successful engagement of the Richard Alfieri play last year at Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse, which ended in August. The Broadway production, to be directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman, had been announced for an April 28th opening at the Booth Theatre.

TELEVISION

‘Ellen Show’ Future Doesn’t Look Good

In a move that foreshadows the show’s demise, CBS has cut back its episodic order of “The Ellen Show,” the first-year sitcom starring comedian Ellen DeGeneres. The series, in which DeGeneres plays an urbanite who moves back to her folksy hometown, has averaged a disappointing 5.9 million viewers, whether airing Friday nights or Mondays, where CBS attempted to jump-start the series a few times on its big night of comedy. CBS won’t officially say the show has been canceled, but the network shut down production and pulled the sitcom from its February sweeps--standard procedure toward cancellation.

But Surely He Already Knew This Was Coming

Psychic medium John Edward, host of the telepathic syndicated talk show “Crossing Over With John Edward,” has signed an agreement with Studios USA Programming to develop a one-hour dramatic series. According to the studio, the drama is about a man who “wrestles with coming to terms with his psychic gift.” Edward, author of the books “One Last Time,” “What If God Were the Sun” and “Crossing Over: The Stories Behind the Stories,” has said he had out-of-body experiences and hosted visits from dead relatives during his childhood on Long Island.

THE ARTS

Graves Still-Life on Reverse Side of Painting

A long-lost still-life by Morris Graves, the last of the “Northwest Mystics,” has been found on the back of a painting he made in 1936, Seattle Art Museum officials say.

According to the Seattle Times, the discovery was made while Nicholas Dorman, the museum’s painting conservator, was cleaning the surface of Graves’ “Ancient Anthem” in preparation for shipment to Germany, for a show set to open next month. Noticing a slight split in the cardboard backing, he looked closer and discovered an untitled still-life with the same type of palette and technique as Graves’ early work.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to find a painting instead of a few brushstrokes,” he said.

A native of Fox Valley, Ore., Graves gained national attention 60 years ago when 30 of his works were included in the exhibition “Americans 1942: 18 Artists From 9 States,” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He died May 5 at age 90 at his home near Loleta, Calif.

QUICK TAKES

Sally Struthers will guest star in 10 episodes of ABC’s “General Hospital” as the jilted ex-fiancee of Luke Spencer, beginning Feb. 13.... Director Baz Luhrmann, already set to take Puccini’s “La Boheme” to Broadway, also is working on bringing “Moulin Rouge” and “Strictly Ballroom” to the Great White Way.... Playwright Eve Ensler will deliver a solo performance of her award-winning “The Vagina Monologues” on HBO on Feb. 14. In the program, she also explores the evolution of the play and conducts interviews with a cross-section of women.... The Bravo cable channel has given a go-ahead to a second season of its documentary series “The It Factor,” with the new installments this time following a diverse group of Los Angeles actors waiting for their big break.... Comic-book cat Garfield will hit the big screen in a 20th Century Fox live-action movie in which he’ll be computer-generated.... Michael Grandage, a former actor, will become artistic director of London’s prestigious Donmar Warehouse in December, replacing Oscar-winner Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”).... KCAL-TV has picked up “The Caroline Rhea Show” for fall, the continuation of the talk/variety franchise established by Rosie O’Donnell.... Walt Disney Pictures will release “Treasure Planet” simultaneously in 35-millimeter and Imax large-screen formats on Nov. 27--the first time, according to the studio, that a movie has premiered in both types of venues.

Diane Haithman