Best Bets

Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art showcases recent photographs added to the museum’s collection in “New Acquisitions/New Work/New Directions 3: Contemporary Selections,” opening Thursday. The exhibition will focus on living artists and their different approaches to the medium--traditional and digital, black-and-white and color, and will include works

by Ed Burtynsky, Peter Garfield, Andreas Gursky and Robert ParkeHarrison, whose “Suspended Field” (2000) is at right.

Theater

Internationally noted performance artist Tim Miller charts the sexual, spiritual and political topography of his identity as a gay man. He explores a lifetime of memorable “Body Blows,” tangible and otherwise, in his newest work, based on his new book of the same name. Opens Friday at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.

Dance

Continuing to explore a broad range of modern dance expression, Mikhail Baryshnikov and his seven-member White Oak Dance Project perform Lucinda Childs’ “Largo” (2001) and “Chacony” (2002), Erick Hawkins’ “Early Floating” (1961) and Sarah Michelson’s “The Experts” (2002) on Friday and Saturday at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. The same repertory will be on view

May 23-26 at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, but no closer to the Los Angeles area on this tour.

Music

On Wednesday night, the final Green Umbrella concert of the season will be a tribute to the late Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. For this event, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, moves to Royce Hall at UCLA in Westwood. Seven works by Takemitsu make up the bulk of the program, which will feature pianist Paul Crossley.

Video

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Carl Reiner, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts and Elliott Gould head the ensemble cast of “Ocean’s Eleven,” director Steven Soderbergh’s classy, breezy remake of the 1960 Rat Pack flick. Clooney plays an ex-con who manages to get a gang of crooks together to rob the

main vault for a trio of Las Vegas casinos. Besides plenty of twists and turns, Reiner delivers an amusing take on a veteran con man. The box office hit arrives Tuesday on VHS and DVD.

Pop Music

Oakland has a long history of illustrious rap artists, from Digital Underground to Tupac Shakur, and now the Bay Area city can boast the most critically acclaimed rap group of 2001: the Coup, below, whose album “Party Music” drew comparisons to Public Enemy with its mix of enticing funk tracks and cutting social observations. The Coup’s first national tour brings it to the House of Blues in West Hollywood on Monday and the Glass House in Pomona on Tuesday, where it shares the bill with turntable magicians the X-ecutioners.

Jazz

For the last few years, guitarist Russell Malone, above, has been a vital component of Diana Krall’s trio. But he has also long been considered a major jazz talent in his own right. His guitar performances are done with superb craftsmanship and a whimsical sense of humor. Malone, performing with pianist Martin Berjerano, bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer E.J. Strickland, opens a six-nighter at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City on Tuesday.