Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation’s press.

MOVIES

A Return to ‘Jurassic Park’: A third “Jurassic Park” movie is on the way, Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment announced Monday. The film, scheduled to be released as early as the summer of 2000, will continue the series begun by 1993’s “Jurassic Park” and its 1997 sequel, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.” The first two “Jurassic Park” movies, directed by Steven Spielberg, have generated more than $1.5 billion in combined worldwide box office. Spielberg will produce the new film, but will not direct.

POP/ROCK

‘Joad’ Coming to Tube?: Bruce Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” may be coming to TV. HBO and the singer-songwriter are working on a deal that would lead to a series of films, each based on a song from the 1995 album, which--evoking the central character of John Steinbeck’s Dust Bowl-era “The Grapes of Wrath”--examined the plight of Latin American immigrants in contemporary California. Among the vivid songs: “The Line,” about a Border Patrol officer falling in love with an immigrant woman; “Balboa Park,” about undocumented homeless kids in the San Diego area; and “Sinaloa Cowboys,” dealing with orchard workers involved in illegal drug manufacturing. (All three songs were inspired by stories in The Times.) Representatives of both Springsteen and the cable channel confirmed that the venture is in discussion, but no time frame has been set either for production or airing, nor have any directors, writers or actors been signed.

Harrison Beating Cancer: George Harrison underwent surgery and two bouts of radiation therapy in a battle with throat cancer, he told an English tabloid. “I’m not going to die on you folks just yet. I am very lucky,” the 54-year-old former Beatle was quoted as telling the News of the World newspaper. The singer-songwriter said he discovered a lump on his neck last July while gardening. He had surgery in August to remove the lump and two courses of radiation therapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Britain’s leading cancer treatment center. “I got it purely from smoking. I gave up cigarettes many years ago but had started again for a while and then stopped in 1997,” Harrison told the newspaper. “Luckily for me, they found that this nodule was more of a warning than anything else.” In January, the musician went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for tests and was told that the cancer had not returned. Tests came back clean in May, the newspaper said.

MUSIC

O.C. Center Schedule Announced: Tony Bennett, Andrea Marcovicci, Rita Moreno and McCoy Tyner top a list of more than a dozen headliners coming to the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa for the facility’s 1998-99 Cabaret Series, Jazz Club and Legendary Masters of Jazz series, center officials announced Monday. Performers and dates for the Legendary Masters of Jazz in 3,000-seat Segerstrom Hall: the Count Basie Orchestra, conducted by Grover Mitchell (Oct. 25, 4 p.m.); the McCoy Tyner Trio and Symphony, performing the music of Burt Bacharach (Nov. 28, 8 p.m.); and Tony Bennett (Dec. 12, 8 p.m.). The Cabaret Series in 299-seat Founders Hall: Karen Akers (Oct. 8-10), Linda Eder (Oct. 29-31), Dixie Carter (Nov. 12-14), Marcovicci (Feb. 18-20) and Davis Gaines (May 6-8). Show times are 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. The Jazz Club in Founders Hall: the Christian McBride Quintet (Oct. 2-3), Nnenna Freelon (Dec. 4-5), the Freddy Cole Quartet--Jazz Christmas (Dec. 18-19), Kevin Mahogany (Jan. 22-23), Dee Dee Bridgewater (Feb. 27-28) and Terence Blanchard--Jazz in Film (April 9-10). Show times are 7:30 and 9:45 p.m., (except Feb. 28, 5:30 and 7:45 p.m.). A non-subscription concert featuring Jack DeJohnette & World Saxophone Quartet in a tribute to Duke Ellington will be April 23-24, 7:30 and 9:45 p.m., in Founders Hall.

QUICK TAKES

Katie Couric, co-host of NBC’s “Today” show, has signed a four-year contract with the network that reportedly is worth $7 million. . . . “Suite From Chicago,” a new orchestral piece with music by John Kander, will have its world premiere Friday-Sunday as part of the Fourth of July “fireworks spectacular” concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. . . . UPN has ordered two new comedies, “Nicki” and “Home Team,” and the returning action-adventure series “The Sentinel” for its 1998-99 prime-time schedule. . . . Rhino Records will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a ‘70s party, open to the public, today at 6 p.m. at its retail store in Westwood. . . . The late Phil Hartman gave voice to Chauncey, a “mouse-ician” in “Buster & Chauncey’s Silent Night,” a direct-to-video animated musical from Columbia TriStar Home Video that will be in stores Oct. 13. . . . Touchstone Pictures is working on a prequel to its hit 1988 film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” with Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and James Pentecost producing. . . . Sylvester Stallone and his wife, model Jennifer Flavin, welcomed their second child, daughter Sistine Rose, on Saturday at an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital. . . . The fifth annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be telecast live in prime time on TNT next March 7 from the Shrine Auditorium. . . . Shelley Winters, who won Oscars for “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “A Patch of Blue,” will be honored for her half-century of acting work when she receives the lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood Film Festival on Aug. 10. Also being honored by the festival is producer Richard Zanuck (“Driving Miss Daisy”), who will receive the Hollywood Outstanding Achievement in Producing Award.