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

POP/ROCK

Tour Dates on Sale Sept. 18: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band will play a second night, Oct. 18, at the new Staples Center arena in downtown Los Angeles, it was announced Monday. The rock outfit’s hotly anticipated reunion tour will now open the sprawling new venue on Oct. 17 and return the next night for an encore performance. Tickets for both shows go on sale Sept. 18. No other Southern California appearances have been announced, but sources close to the tour say the band’s first concert trek in a decade will likely swing back through the region next year. The tour has set off record-breaking sales frenzies, and through the first 59 shows on the East Coast and in Europe has sold approximately 1.25 million tickets.

MOVIES

Venice Watch: A year to the day after the death of Japan’s most acclaimed director, Akira Kurosawa, the last film he wrote premiered at the Venice Film Festival as a tribute to the man dubbed “The Emperor of Japanese Cinema.” First-time director Takashi Koizumi on Monday unveiled “Ame Agaru” (When the Rain Lifts), an 18th century Japanese tale about a talented but socially clumsy samurai who tries to do good. “The screenplay had basically been completed by the ‘master’ and I just filled in certain small holes for him,” said Koizumi, who was Kurosawa’s assistant for 28 years. “My wish was to enhance Kurosawa’s fame by using what I had learned from him and adding a bit of my own.” Two-time Oscar winner Kurosawa, whose films included “The Seven Samurai” and “Rashomon,” died in Tokyo of a stroke at age 88 while writing “Ame Agaru.” . . . Also in Venice, acclaimed Chinese film director Zhang Yimou announced Tuesday that he plans a stage production of the Mozart opera “The Magic Flute” after the success of his version of Puccini’s “Turandot.” Zhang said that the new work would be put on at a German opera house, but he did not yet know when or where. Zhang’s latest work, “Not One Less,” is competing for the Golden Lion prize at the Venice festival, which ends Sept. 11.

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Bergman Details Nazi Leanings: Swedish director Ingmar Bergman said in an interview published Tuesday he was a great admirer of Adolf Hitler and was shocked when he realized the true horrors of Nazism after the end of World War II. Although Bergman, 81, has previously admitted he was a Nazi sympathizer, the interview in the Swedish tabloid Expressen was the first time he was so candid about his support for Hitler. “I was really disinterested in politics but impressed by the German’s ideals,” Bergman said. “The Nazism I had seen seemed fun and youthful.” Bergman, who found Hitler “unbelievably charismatic,” also admitted that he and a gang of friends once painted swastikas over the summer house of a Jewish director. But Bergman called it “a hideous shock for me” when the war was over and the real picture of Nazi horrors became clear.

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Newport Festival Folds: The Newport Beach International Film Festival is officially kaput with the bankruptcy filing of its co-founder in Orange County. The 4-year-old festival had been dogged for some time by logistical foul-ups and poor attendance. In his Sept. 1 filing for liquidation, Jeffrey S. Conner, who launched the festival in 1996, listed assets of $10,960 and debts of $191,900. Although the festival--with a limited budget and unpaid volunteer staff--never caught on with Hollywood producers or filmgoers, entries had grown to more than 100, chosen from more than 550 selections representing 30 countries. Most were smaller-budgeted filmmakers looking for their big break.

TELEVISION

Syndicated Moves: KTTV-TV will premiere Queen Latifah’s new syndicated talk show on Sept. 20, airing weekdays at 10. Also new to KTTV this season will be the syndicated premieres of “Unhappily Ever After,” “3rd Rock From the Sun” and “The Drew Carey Show,” which will air weeknights at 5, 6:30 and 7:30, respectively, beginning Sept. 13. (KTTV staple “The Simpsons” will continue to air twice a night, at 6 and 7, and “Home Improvement” moves to 5:30 p.m.) “Unhappily Ever After” will also air weeknights at 11:30, following the similarly themed “Married . . . With Children”; and “The Drew Carey Show” will also air Saturday nights at midnight. . . . Meanwhile, KTLA-TV’s syndicated premiere of “Caroline in the City” will be on Sept. 20 in the Monday-Friday midnight slot, with the show then moving on Oct. 4 to its regular 11:30 weeknight berth.

QUICK TAKES

Shania Twain’s sophomore release, “The Woman in Me,” has tied with Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut record as the second-best-selling solo female album of all time, behind Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill.” Sales of Twain and Houston’s releases have both been certified at 13 million units each, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, while Morissette’s has sold 16 million. . . . New Line Home Video will release “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” in stores Nov. 16. . . . Production has begun on Paramount Pictures’ “Rugrats in Paris--The Movie,” the second animated feature film based on Nickelodeon’s hit TV series. Celebrity voices will include Susan Sarandon, John Lithgow and Debbie Reynolds. A holiday 2000 release is planned.