MOVIESMarshall Taken Ill: Director and actress Penny...

MOVIES

Marshall Taken Ill: Director and actress Penny Marshall was released from a hospital Monday in East Hampton, N.Y., where she was kept overnight because of chest pains. Marshall, 50, was rushed by ambulance to Southampton Hospital on Sunday after tennis at the estate of Revlon Chairman Ronald Perelman, where she was visiting, according to local police. Sources close to her called the problem “nothing serious.” Marshall will reportedly make tonight’s premiere of her new movie, “Renaissance Man,” starring Danny DeVito, in Los Angeles. There is no word whether she will still participate with a cadre of stars--from Arnold Schwarzenegger to James Garner to Pauly Shore--in an elaborate military obstacle course constructed in the parking lot of Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome and patterned after the one featured in her new film.

* Film Novels: A romantic Mexican recipe book called “An Appetite for Passion,” inspired by the movie “Like Water for Chocolate,” and “You So Crazy,” a book written by comic Martin Lawrence based on his controversial concert film, will be published by Miramax Books, a new division of Miramax Films. The Academy Award-winning screenplay for “The Piano,” written by Jane Campion, was the first book to be published by the new Miramax imprint of Hyperion Books. Upcoming Miramax releases that will get novel treatment include “The Crossing Guard,” written by playwright David Rabe and based on an original screenplay by Sean Penn; Paul Auster’s “Smoke” and the first North American printing of Alexandre Dumas’ “Queen Margot.”

* Alexander’s Band: “Seinfeld’s” Jason Alexander passed on his TV co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus when picking the cast for his film-directing debut. Instead, he chose Lolita Davidovich to star opposite Bill Pullman in the comedy “Stranger Things.” Alexander selected Davidovich after an all-day reading session for eight actresses, including Louis-Dreyfus and Marcia Gay Harden. The movie, which also stars Joe Mantegna, begins filming in Los Angeles in June for a 1995 release.

* Hollywood Invasion: Sylvester Stallone showed up for the opening of Asia’s first Planet Hollywood restaurant in a rickshaw pulled by four women. Traffic was halted for hours near the restaurant in Hong Kong Sunday as some 2,000 fans jammed the street to catch a glimpse of a star. Stallone, Don Johnson and Steven Seagal were among the luminaries attending the opening. Stallone and Bruce Willis, whose band the Red Devils provided music, are part owners of the Planet Hollywood chain, which also has restaurants in New York, Chicago and London. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another partner in the venture, did not attend.

POP/ROCK

Smokey Explanation: Schools superintendent Charles Fowler in Sarasota, Fla., cited the Supreme Court’s ruling not to promote religion during class activities as the reason for canceling a speech by Motown artist Smokey Robinson. Robinson was the featured speaker during the Youth Explosion Anti-Drug rally last week when he briefly talked of how God saved him from a bout with substance abuse. School officials reacted by canceling a second planned rally, saying Robinson had violated an agreement to keep religion out of his comments. “Parents have every reason to believe that when their children come to school, we will not attempt to mold their religious beliefs by word or by example,” Fowler said.

ART

Lost Art: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, in a gesture laden with historical significance, handed back the first of 28 masterpieces taken from France by the Nazis during World War II and later kept by communist East Germany. Most belonged to Jewish families, seven of whom have been identified by French authorities. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the French government requested the return of the works by Monet, Cezanne, Corot, Courbet, Delacroix, Gauguin and Pissaro from an East Berlin museum. Kohl symbolically presented Monet’s “The Louveciennes Road, Snow at Sunset” to President Francois Mitterrand at a summit dinner in Mulhouse, France, on Monday night. German officials told the French government it could collect the other 27 paintings from Berlin--as a gift, not an exchange.

QUICK TAKES

On the heels of the hit movie “The Flintstones,” ABC will roll out new episodes of its comedy series “Dinosaurs!” this week, airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m. . . . Jack Nicholson, who has agreed to do a rare press junket for the June 17 opening of his new werewolf movie, “Wolf,” will appear at the Fangoria Weekend of Horror Convention at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton on June 11. . . . Cable’s Lifetime Television will add “Midnight Caller,” the 1980s TV series starring Gary Cole as a crime-fighting San Francisco radio talk-show host, to its lineup starting Wednesday. The drama will air weeknights at 7 and Sundays at 10 p.m. . . . John Oates of the pop music duo Hall and Oates has signed a deal with All American Television to produce “MAXMUSIC,” a one-hour syndicated TV series with music videos, interview segments and home shopping.