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

POP/ROCK

GNR’s Reintroduction: Axl Rose will unveil his new version of Guns N’ Roses with a New Year’s Eve show at the Las Vegas House of Blues. Limited tickets go on sale today at noon via the band’s Web site, https://www.gnrdirect.com, with Ticketmaster sales starting Friday at 3 p.m. The concert--the first GNR show since 1993--is scheduled to begin an hour after midnight, making the start time 01/01/01 01:00. Rose, working with an almost entirely new lineup, has been recording what will eventually be the first album of new GNR material since 1991’s two-volume “Use Your Illusion” set. The group is also booked to appear Jan. 14 at Brazil’s Rock in Rio festival.

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Pop Notes: Billy Joel and Elton John have added a second joint Los Angeles concert: Feb. 9 at the Great Western Forum, with seats on sale now. Tickets to their Feb. 6 show sold out in 25 minutes. . . . The Backstreet Boys’ “Black & Blue World Tour” will be at Staples Center on March 14. Tickets go on sale Sunday at noon. . . . Nominations for the 43rd annual Grammy Awards will be announced Jan. 3. The awards air Feb. 21 on CBS.

THE ARTS

NEH Grants: Los Angeles’ KCET has received a $150,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce a DVD-ROM and interactive Web site to accompany the public television station’s documentary film series “Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of the American Century.” Among others with new NEH grants, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has received a $500,000 challenge grant for an endowment for programs such as digital exhibitions, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art has received $9,950 toward the traveling exhibition and catalog of paintings by Mexican painter Gunther Gerzso.

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Local Prizes: The International Assn. of Art Critics’ awards for 1999-2000 honor several exhibitions with L.A. connections. “In Memory of My Feelings: Frank O’Hara and American Art,” organized by Museum of Contemporary Art curator Russell Ferguson, won second place for best museum show outside New York City (the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Sol LeWitt retrospective placed first in the category). UCLA Hammer Museum’s “Lee Mullican: Selected Drawings, 1945-1980,” curated by museum director Ann Philbin, tied for best show of an under-known or emerging artist. The co-winner in that category was “VALIE EXPORT: Ob/De+Con(‘Struction),” organized for the Galleries at Moore College in Philadelphia by then-director Elsa Longhauser, who is now head of the Santa Monica Museum of Art, where the show will open March 10. “The Unprivate House,” organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and on view at UCLA Hammer until Jan. 7, was named best architecture show.

QUICK TAKES

Julia Roberts on Tuesday became the first actress to make the Hollywood Reporter’s annual “power” list of the entertainment industry’s most influential women. Roberts ranked No. 3 on the trade publication’s list, which was headed by Paramount Pictures’ Sherry Lansing. The only other performer on the list, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, ranked No. 15. . . . A portrait of Marilyn Monroe that sold for a whopping $23,000 at Christie’s much-publicized 1999 auction of items from the late actress’ estate fetched just $4,465 at a Christie’s Hollywood memorabilia auction on Tuesday. . . . Fox will broadcast “Barbra Streisand--Timeless,” billed as the star’s final concert production, as a Valentine’s Day special. . . . Singer Olivia Newton-John will receive the Ermenegildo Zegna International Environmental Award during the 10th annual Environmental Media Awards in Santa Monica tonight. . . . San Francisco Symphony President Nancy Bechtle will step down from the post next December. She’ll be replaced by John Goldman, who has been on the orchestra’s board since 1996. . . . Suzanne de Passe has been named executive producer of next year’s NAACP Image Awards, replacing veteran executive producer Hamilton Cloud. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said De Passe will lead the annual ceremony, to be held in early March, into a “new direction.” Nominations will be announced Thursday. . . . Actor-comedian John Leguizamo’s girlfriend, Justine Maurer, delivered a baby boy Tuesday morning. The baby--the couple’s second--is named Ryder Lee, after the film “Easy Rider” and the late Bruce Lee.