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

MOVIES

New Cast Members for ‘Harry Potter’ Sequel

Jason Isaacs, the villain of “The Patriot,” will play Lucius Malfoy, the sinister father of Harry’s nemesis Draco Malfoy, in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” Warner Bros. said Monday.

In the movie, set for a Nov. 15 release, Harry finds a diary that helps him uncover a mysterious force that’s haunting his school.

Other new members of the “Chamber” cast include “Cats & Dogs” co-star Miriam Margolyes as magical gardener Professor Sprout and Mark Williams from “The Borrowers” as Mr. Weasley, the father of Harry’s school chum, Ron. “Bridget Jones’s Diary” co-star Shirley Henderson will play the self-doubting ghost Moaning Myrtle, while newcomer Sally Mortemore will appear as librarian Madam Pince.

Child actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are reprising their roles as Harry, Ron and Hermione, respectively. Kenneth Branagh previously agreed to play vain Gilderoy Lockhart, professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Crowe Eats Crow, Apologizing to Producer

Yet another turn in the “Russell Crowe vs. the BBC” saga: The actor has apologized to the producer whom he verbally and physically attacked for cutting his speech at last week’s British Academy Film Awards--despite earlier denials that he’d do so.

According to Sun Online, a Web site of the London newspaper, the star of “A Beautiful Mind” telephoned Malcolm Gerrie on Saturday. During a 20-minute conversation, he called his behavior “inappropriate”--a result of feeling so “passionate” at the time.

By Gerrie’s account, Crowe also offered to do anything he could to help the producer’s family, who’d been “doorstepped” by the Australian media in the wake of the incident. Down the road, the actor suggested, they should hook up for a “few quiet pints” of Guinness.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Gerrie said. “It was a total contrast to how he reacted the week before.”

TELEVISION

‘Nightline’ Fans Voice Cyber-Complaints

Though the folks at ABC’s “Nightline” were still mum Monday regarding the news that their Disney bosses are trying to oust them from their late-night home of the last two decades, the viewers were not.

In his daily e-mail to viewers, executive producer Leroy Sievers said the show has been “flooded with thousands and thousands” of e-mails of support (about 3,275 as of Monday morning), which he called “very gratifying.” To maximize the impact, however, he suggested that fans send their comments to ABC Audience Relations, whose address he was happy to supply.

On Friday, some viewers might get to tell anchor Ted Koppel in person just how they feel. The show plans a 90-minute “town meeting” in New York City on homeland security, and the tensions between increasing domestic security and preserving civil liberties.

Among the more than 300 people who will be in the audience: World Trade Center survivors, families of victims, police and fire department members and detainees questioned in the attacks.

THE ARTS

Cellist’s Soviet Trip Unlocks His Past

Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich has learned a family secret in a visit to Soviet-era archives: His father spent a year in a Soviet labor camp.

The musician, who lives in Paris, found the report while visiting archives in Voronezh, 300 miles south of Moscow, where he also visited a music school named in honor of his family.

According to reports on Russian television, he discovered that his father, conductor Leopold Rostropovich, was arrested in 1919 and sent to a labor camp for a year. The arrest came after a Voronezh newspaper published an invitation to a concert conducted by the elder Rostropovich in honor of a general of the anti-Bolshevik White Army, according to state television RTR.

“I never knew about this fact. I don’t think even my mother was aware of the fact that my father had been arrested,” said the cellist, who left the Soviet Union in 1974.

QUICK TAKES

“Amelie” won four Cesar awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars, on Saturday, including best picture and best director for Jean-Pierre Jeunet. But the star, Audrey Tautou, was bypassed in the best actress category.... Shirley Jones (“The Partridge Family”) has filed for divorce from comedian Marty Ingels, to whom she’s been married for 25 years.... Steven Van Zandt, longtime member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and an actor in “The Sopranos,” will host a nationally syndicated radio show titled “Hard Rock Cafe Presents Little Steven’s Underground Garage.” The two-hour weekly program, focusing on garage bands, will air locally on KLSX-FM (97.1) Saturdays at 10 p.m., starting in April.... Daniel Ash’s show scheduled for tonight at the Roxy has been postponed after a car accident involving the musician and his band on Friday. The date is expected to be rescheduled in April.... Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, will switch gears in his next project, playing a flamboyant gay man in the summer release “Boat Trip,” opposite Cuba Gooding Jr.... Anne Heche gave birth to a baby boy, Homer Heche Laffoon, on Saturday in Los Angeles--the first child for the actress and husband Coleman Laffoon.... “Late Nite Catechism,” the show about a straight-talking nun that’s playing at L.A.’s Coronet Theater and at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse, will expand to a third Southland venue on April 4. The show’s co-creator and original star, Maripat Donovan, will take her act to the Balcony Theatre in the Pasadena Playhouse complex.