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

POP/ROCK

The Boss Revisits Old Haunt For L.A. Date

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band have chosen an old, familiar stage for their Aug. 24 return to Southern California: the Forum, a venue the band last visited in 1978.

The band on Wednesday announced dates in 46 cities for its reunion tour, which kicks off in East Rutherford, N.J., on Aug. 7. More shows will probably be added during the run, which is expected to stretch into the summer of 2003.

The group’s new album, “The Rising,” hits stores July 30, and they will perform live that morning on NBC’s “Today.” Tickets for the Forum show go on sale Sunday. The floor level will be general-admission festival seating.

Springsteen’s last two L.A. performances were at Staples Center, which he inaugurated in October 1999, playfully pointing out that there were “too many sky boxes.”

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MUSIC

Ozawa Can’t Get Over the Green ($) Monster

Seiji Ozawa, the departing Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor who once wore a Red Sox jersey onstage, had a great idea for his grand finale: As a gift to the city in which he worked for 29 years, he said, he would lead the band in a free concert at Fenway Park this summer. After he pitched the idea to the new Red Sox owners, the club set aside July 20 as the tentative date, when the team would be on the road.

But according to the Boston Globe, organizers have struck out in their efforts to make the event a reality.

Orchestra managing director Mark Volpe estimated that it would cost at least $500,000 to build a stage, install a sound system and provide other support for the show.

Because there’s not enough room for trucks to enter the stadium, much of the equipment would have to be carried in.

“Piece by piece by piece, you’re talking about a massive construction job,” Volpe said. “Half a million is a lot.”

Ozawa, who will take over the Vienna State Opera in the fall, will instead say his goodbyes to the Boston crowd at the Tanglewood Music Festival, summer home of the Boston Symphony, this weekend.

PEOPLE

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Wearing the “Gay Mafia” Tag Proudly

In an effort to make a quick buck, a 38-year-old independent producer and graphic designer is milking a controversial remark about Hollywood’s alleged “gay mafia” made by power broker Michael Ovitz.

Jason Sikes, who has never met the former agent, says he designed the “Gay Mafia” T-shirts as a “gag ... and a jab at not just Ovitz, but all the Ovitzes out there.”

The black cotton Ts, with white lettering in the style of Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather,” feature a marionette over the letter G. Almost as soon as he put the item on EBay, Sikes says, he received 100 orders from all over the nation.

The incendiary phrase was used by Ovitz in a tell-all Vanity Fair interview, published last week, that has become the talk of the town. In it, he blamed his career’s demise on the existence of Hollywood’s “gay mafia”--a statement for which he has since apologized.

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QUICK TAKES

Guitarist Eddie Van Halen and actress Valerie Bertinelli have announced they secretly separated nearly 10 months ago after 20 years of marriage. It is not clear whether they intend to divorce.... Sharon Osbourne, wife of British heavy-metal icon Ozzy Osbourne and co-star of the MTV series “The Osbournes,” has been released from a Los Angeles-area hospital after undergoing colon cancer surgery. According to a family spokeswoman, the disease is in its early stages and a full recovery is expected.... Dennis Miller is folding his HBO series “Dennis Miller Live” after nine seasons and five Emmys.... Martin Scorsese, Robert Towne, Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher, composer Marc Shaiman and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski will be honored with Hollywood Outstanding Achievement Awards during the closing night of the Hollywood Film Festival on Oct 7.... CNN’s international outlet, CNNi, will broadcast a version of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” to 161 million homes worldwide starting Sept. 21.... The Skirball Cultural Center has extended Joe McNally’s “Faces of Ground Zero: A Photographic Tribute to America’s Heroes” through July 21.