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

TV & MOVIES

Force Still With It: In its first 48 hours in video release this week, “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” sold more than 5 million copies, generating nearly $100 million in retail. Of the copies sold since its VHS debut on Tuesday, 500,000 were the special wide-screen collector’s edition. Rental figures on the all-time No. 2 box office champ (behind “Titanic”) will be available next week.

*

Hometown Hero: Many Croatians spent Thursday night watching the TV debut of the nation’s first Hollywood star. A random check of Croatian viewers showed that many stayed home to catch the first airing there of actor Goran Visnjic as Dr. Luka Kovach in NBC’s hit hospital drama “ER.” Initial reactions suggest that the American series will probably seal its place as the most popular foreign show on Croatian national TV. According to media reports, Visnjic’s opening remark in a scene with a little girl--”My name is Luka. It’s a funny name, isn’t it?”--and other lines were extensively quoted in the nation Friday.

*

Straight to TV: The latest movie from Mexican director Alfonso Arau (“Like Water for Chocolate,” “A Walk in the Clouds”) won’t debut in theaters. Instead, it will premiere on cable’s Cinemax on May 26 as part of the network’s “First on Max” series, which shows big-screen films prior to their theatrical release. The film stars Woody Allen, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Cheech Marin, David Schwimmer, Kiefer Sutherland and Sharon Stone. The filmmakers are still seeking a theatrical distributor.

*

V-Chipping In: Circuit City stores next week will begin distributing a free booklet, “A Parent’s Guide to the TV Ratings and the V-Chip.” Though nearly 1 in 10 TV sets now contain the V-chip, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that two-fifths of parents still are unaware of the device, which allows them to block TV programs based on content.

ART

Seeking Rightful Owners: Germany plans to publish a list of several thousand artworks plundered by the Nazis from European Holocaust victims in an effort to reunite the works with their rightful owners. Much of the list features unclaimed works from a collection amassed by Hitler himself and intended for a lavish museum he dreamed of building in Linz, Austria. Officials plan to post the list on the Web in the hopes of reaching a wide audience. Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, meanwhile, will also post on the Web a list of its European paintings with unknown histories that may have Nazi ties--at https://www.mfa.org.

*

Santa Monica Museum Chief: Elsa Longhauser, former director of Philadelphia’s Galleries of the Moore College of Art and Design, will take over on June 15 as director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Among her curatorial experience, Longhauser guest curated a 1988 encyclopedic survey of 20th century self-taught art for New York’s Museum of American Folk Art.

*

Skirball Offers Getty Shuttles: Free weekend afternoon shuttles will run between the Getty Center and the nearby Skirball Cultural Center today through July 23 in conjunction with the Skirball’s major exhibition “Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture.” In addition, the Skirball will extend its Thursday hours until 9 p.m. during the exhibition’s run (through July 25).

POP/ROCK

Wanna Be a Deejay? The Internet site ChickClick.com is holding a national talent search for a radio deejay to be dubbed the “official Chick-Jockey, or CJ.” The Web site plans to debut in June a new hourlong syndicated radio show targeted to Top 40 stations nationwide. The selected host will receive an undisclosed salary plus one year’s rent in the L.A. area. Rules and applications are available on the Web at https://www.chickclick.com/contests.

QUICK TAKES

Emma Thompson will star in an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Wit”--which appeared at the Geffen Playhouse in February starring Kathleen Chalfant--for HBO. Mike Nichols will direct, and filming is to begin in September. . . . Dancer Ann Miller, 80, has canceled her May 6 performance at Orange Coast College after breaking her hip in a recent car accident. . . . Composer and recent Oscar musical director Burt Bacharach, 71, fractured his left shoulder in a fall Wednesday during concert rehearsals in Indiana. . . . Lawrence Wilker, president of New York’s Kennedy Center for nine years, will step down at the end of the year to launch an Internet arts and entertainment venture. . . . ABC has picked up its freshman Sela Ward-Billy Campbell series, “Once and Again,” for next season, along with fellow dramas “The Practice” and “NYPD Blue,” which will return for their fifth and eighth seasons, respectively. . . . Cable’s FX network has picked up an additional seven episodes of the Howard Stern-produced show “Son of the Beach,” bringing the total order to 13 episodes. . . . KLOS-FM (95.5) will premiere “Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live,” a two-part special featuring Pink Floyd’s original 1980 live London performances of “The Wall,” along with new interviews with band members. The special airs 9 to 10:30 p.m., Sunday and April 16. The 20th-anniversary album release “Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live” hits stores on April 18.

--SHAUNA SNOW