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

MUSIC

Pavarotti Cancels, Met Crowd Boos

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti developed the flu on Wednesday and canceled his appearance in a production of “Tosca” at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera. It was to be his next-to-last scheduled performance with the company with which he is most closely associated.

Met general manager Joseph Volpe was booed loudly when he walked onstage to announce the cancellation. “I know you’re disappointed,” he told the sellout crowd of 4,000. “You can boo some more if it makes you feel better.”

Pavarotti, 66, was advised not to sing for at least 48 hours, according to his representatives. The singer “very much hopes” that he will recover in time for Saturday’s performance, the statement said.

So does the Met, which is charging $75 to $1,875, instead of the usual $30 to $265, for the performance--the last night of its season--which is to be followed by a dinner and dance.

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POP/ROCK

R. Kelly Tells BET: ‘I Didn’t Do It’

Grammy winner R. Kelly, under criminal investigation for allegedly videotaping sex acts with an underage girl, said he is not the man in the X-rated images. While he had not seen the tapes, he said, “I can say it in all confidence that it’s not me because I didn’t do it.”

In an interview Wednesday on “BET Tonight” with Ed Gordon, the singer said, “I want America to know that you can’t believe everything you hear, and nowadays, you can’t believe everything you see. I’ve done a lot of wrong things in my life, but I’m not a criminal, I’m not a monster.”

The singer, known for hits such as “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Bump ‘n’ Grind,” has been mired in scandal since allegations surfaced in February that he had taped a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl. Since then, a tape purportedly showing Kelly having sex with a girl and other sexual encounters with women, has been sold on city streets and the Internet.

Kelly refused to discuss documents indicating he had married his protege, the late Aaliyah, when she was 15--a bond that was later annulled. But he told Gordon that two lawsuits, each claiming that he had sex with a minor, had no merit and were settled only on the advice of his lawyer.

A third lawsuit was recently filed by a woman who said Kelly had sex with her when she was a minor and forced her to have an abortion. That case is still pending.

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MOVIES

‘Spider-Man’ Setting Midweek Records

Schools may still be in session, but that hasn’t kept “Spider-Man” from doing summer-style business midweek. After its record-breaking $114.8-million debut last weekend, “Spider-Man” has been cleaning up on the weekdays, starting with $11 million on Monday (the biggest non-holiday Monday ever), $10 million on Tuesday and about $8.3 million on Wednesday.

Thursday’s gross was estimated at about $8 million, bringing the seven-day total to more than $150 million. According to the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, that’s another record, since “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” took eight days to get there and “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” took 10.

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Jewish Group Urges Boycott of Cannes Fest

After a recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks in France, the West Coast chapter of the American Jewish Congress is urging Hollywood power players to reconsider plans to attend the Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 15-26.

A full-page ad in trade publications this week compared the current climate with World War II, when France’s anti-Semitic Vichy regime collaborated with Adolf Hitler.

If people decide to go anyway, American Jewish Congress executive director Gary Ratner told the Washington Post, they should raise the issue while they’re there. “People in the entertainment industry who have been advocates on other world causes, like Tibet, haven’t said a word about anti-Semitism,” he said.

Jean-Luc Sibiude, the French consul general in Los Angeles, called the campaign “totally unjustified.”

The violence in France is a spillover of the Israeli-Palestinian unrest in the Mideast, he said, and has nothing to do with the government.

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QUICK TAKES

Donald Sutherland was hospitalized in Los Angeles after contracting bacterial pneumonia during a plane flight. He is expected to be home today.... Michael Mann has signed to direct and write Universal Pictures’ big-screen version of the 1980s cop series “Miami Vice,” which he executive produced on television, Variety reports.... Jon Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, became the parents of a boy, Jacob Hurley, on Tuesday.... Constantin Brancusi’s 1913 gold-leaf portrait “Danaide” fetched $18.2 million at a Christie’s auction, a world record for a piece of sculpture.... Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry has won the Gold Medal for Architecture, awarded every six years by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.... John Larroquette and Joe Regalbuto will star in Neil Simon’s updated play “Oscar and Felix, a New Look at the Odd Couple,” at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood from June 11 to July 21.... Two guitars belonging to Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia were sold at a New York City auction for about $1.74 million.... Steve Martin, Juliette Binoche, Kevin Kline and Ryan Phillippe will co-star in “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” a movie based on Martin’s play of the same title.