BEST BETS / FEBRUARY 6-12, 2000

MOVIES

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in “The Beach” as a restless American backpacker visiting Thailand. He’s intrigued by a stranger’s mumblings about a legendary secret island, a paradise on earth. With Robert Carlyle, Virginie Ledoyen and Guillaume Canet. Opens Friday.

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“The Tigger Movie” is an all-new Tigger feature with five new songs by Richard and Robert Sherman that finds our cuddly friends preparing a winter home for the dismal donkey Eeyore. This animated family film was directed by Jun Falkenstein. Opens Friday.

THEATER

“The Seagull,” Anton Chekhov’s classic tale of love rebuffed and unrequited, will be directed by Jack O’Brien with a new translation by playwright Tom Stoppard (whose many theater and film awards include sharing the 1998 Oscar for his “Shakespeare in Love” screenplay). Mariette Hartley, Megan Follows and Julian Gamble head the cast. Opens Thursday at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre.

ART

A traveling exhibition of more than 300 rare artifacts details life during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in “Secret World of the Forbidden City: Splendors From China’s Imperial Palace,” opening today at the Bowers Museum. The largest collection of objects ever loaned by the Imperial Palace will include arms and armor, robes and jewelry, paintings and ceramics and a complete throne room.

MUSIC

The Los Angeles Philharmonic debut of Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos is the feature of the orchestra’s weekend programs, Friday and next Sunday, when Philharmonic veteran guest conductor Lawrence Foster returns with a program offering Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony and Alfred Schnittke’s “In Memoriam.” Volodos will play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

VIDEO

Martin Lawrence cracks wise in the popular action comedy “Blue Streak” as a clever jewel thief who must pose as a cop to retrieve a diamond he had hidden in a half-finished building that now houses a police department. The film, which also stars Dave Chappelle, arrives Tuesday on video and DVD.

POP MUSIC

They are rock’s band that wasn’t there: They’ve averaged one album every 10 years or so, and their current tour is their first together since 1974. But Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young still pack some magic for their longtime fans, who will be there to check them out Saturday at downtown’s Staples Center. Also at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim on Feb. 15.

JAZZ

In the second of four jam sessions sponsored by the Grammys, this Monday the Jazz Bakery in Culver City will host quite an all-star cast, including trombonist Bill Watrous, baritonist Jack Nimitz, trumpeter Bobby Rodriguez, clarinetist Abe Most, singer Sue Raney and pianist Mike Lang among others.