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

MOVIES

Oscar Move Delayed?: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, faced with construction delays on its new Academy Theater that the group feels makes it unlikely the venue will be ready for the 2001 Oscar telecast, is making alternate plans. “If [the new 3,300-seat theater, at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue] is ready, we’ll go there, but if it’s not ready, we want to have someplace to go,” an academy spokesman said Thursday. “There’s a pretty big hole in the ground there to fill in 20 months.” So the academy is pursuing deals with other venues--including the 5,000-seat Shrine Auditorium, where the 2000 awards are being held March 26, and the 2,800-seat Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where this year’s ceremony was held.

STAGE

Revolution at the Ahmanson?: Peter Hall, director of the Ahmanson Theatre’s current Shakespeare repertory, told a national conference of nonprofit theater officials that his L.A. cast has the consistency of speech that he believes other American Shakespeare productions lack. After urging the Theatre Communications Group conference in San Francisco to avoid playing it safe in programming, he was asked by a member of the audience whether L.A.’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Measure for Measure” are “dangerous.” “Terribly dangerous,” he replied. “The only enemy to doing the classics is doing them respectfully and boringly. If you can make it speak to a contemporary audience, it’s a revolutionary and unsafe thing.”

POP/ROCK

Anti-Semitic Enemy?: A new Public Enemy song is under fire from the Anti-Defamation League for “containing classic anti-Semitic code words,” but the pioneering rap group says the track is being misunderstood. Called “Swindler’s Lust,” the song appears on the group’s new “There’s a Poison Goin On” album, and has been described by Public Enemy’s Chuck D as a criticism of record industry avarice and unfair treatment of black artists. But the Anti-Defamation League claims the song disgraces the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust with its title (an apparent reference to the Holocaust-themed film “Schindler’s List”) and the lyrics: “More dollars, more cents for the big six, another million claiming their innocence.” However, in a recent interview with The Times, Chuck D alluded to the “big six” lyric as a reference to the music industry’s six major music conglomerates (a number recently reduced to five). League regional director David A. Lehrer said the anti-prejudice organization respects Public Enemy’s right to free speech but will continue to call attention to the issue. “We’re going to exercise our 1st Amendment rights by standing up and calling this unambiguous anti-Semitism.” Steven Spielberg, the director of “Schindler’s List,” was traveling Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

QUICK TAKES

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell holds an in-store appearance at 7 tonight at Sunset Boulevard’s Virgin Records Megastore. . . . Alanis Morissette today becomes the first major artist to premiere a video on the World Wide Web, when her self-directed “So Pure” video goes up at 3 a.m. on https://www.aol.com. . . . Emmy nomination ballots are due by 5 p.m. today for the 1999 prime-time Emmys, being held Sept. 12. Nominations will be announced July 22. . . . Former KNBC-TV newscaster Kelly Lange has joined KRLA-AM (1110) as a Sunday talk-show host from 5-8 p.m. The time slot had not had a regular host. . . . News anchor and former Texas judge Catherine Crier (“The Crier Report”) is leaving Fox News Channel to anchor a midday legal news show on Court TV beginning this fall. . . . Flight attendant Suzen Johnson--whose 1997 affair with sportscaster Frank Gifford sparked tabloid fireworks--has filed a $10-million federal suit against the Globe, alleging that the tabloid choreographed the scandal to boost its profits and pressured her into seducing Gifford. A Globe spokesman dismissed the allegations, calling Johnson a “pathological liar.” . . . In the latest legal volley between former Branson, Mo., theater partners Tony Orlando and Wayne Newton, Newton has filed a $20-million countersuit claiming he was slandered by Orlando and lost money because Orlando couldn’t draw audiences. The suit also asks for 20% of Orlando’s net worth, or $1--whichever is greater. . . . West Virginia plans to pay $85,000 to use its unofficial anthem, the late John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” to promote tourism in the state for three years. The deal still must be approved by the state’s attorney general.