MOVIES*Leaving ‘Godzilla’: Jan De Bont, who scored...

MOVIES

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Leaving ‘Godzilla’: Jan De Bont, who scored a directing success with his first film, “Speed,” will not direct TriStar Pictures’ upcoming “Godzilla.” He and the company “could not agree on which direction to take the screenplay to address the creative and technical problems,” the studio announced. TriStar said it is looking for another director for the monster epic. The parting was so amicable that the studio said it is would welcome another project for De Bont.

TELEVISION

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Guessing Game: At the same hour on Thursday night, one channel will be offering an interview with Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a rare look behind the scenes of the U.S. Supreme Court. Another channel will feature “Diana: A Princess Alone.” Which program is on public television? The answer: The story of Diana’s transformation from princess to single mother shows up on KCET-TV, the public television station. Meanwhile, over on ABC (Channels 7, 3 and 10), Diane Sawyer will be interviewing Justice Ginsburg for “PrimeTime Live” about life on the nation’s high court. You knew that ?

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And Guess Who’s Coming to Town?: New York-based late-night talk-show host Jon Stewart will make like the heavyweights during the February sweeps ratings period when he visits L.A. for a week of tapings from Paramount’s Stage 27 Feb. 6-10. Stewart’s show is broadcast nightly on KCOP Channel 13 at 12:30 a.m. Tickets for his L.A. appearances may be reserved by calling (800) 822-1545.

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Attention, Superman: Don’t look now, Superman, but isn’t that Lex Luthor over there? Yes, in Burbank. The Man of Steel’s archrival was supposed to be dead after last season’s goings-on. But he isn’t. John Shea is currently filming the evil role at Warner Bros. Studios, and Luthor shows up on Feb. 12 on “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” Isn’t February the time for the ratings sweeps?

ART

New Challenge: British institutions have until Feb. 1 to raise about $805,000 to prevent an early painting by Lucian Freud from going out of the country. It is the first work by a contemporary artist to be subject to a British export license. “The Painter’s Room,” a 1943 painting bought by an anonymous collector at Sotheby’s in June, depicts a stuffed zebra head, a shabby sofa and a wilting potted palm. The artist, a modern master whose studies of the human figure dissect both bodies and minds, has joined the list of Old Masters whose works are deemed so important that their export is delayed or stopped. Britain recently raised funds to keep Canova’s “Three Graces” from being exported to Malibu’s J. Paul Getty Museum. The government has already deferred the export license decision once on Freud’s work and could extend it until April 1 if there is a serious intention shown to raise the funds.

MUSIC

Baby Judd: Wynonna Judd gave birth to an 8-pound, 15-ounce baby boy Friday in a Nashville hospital. The 31-year-old country star and Elijah Judd Kelley are both doing fine, says her manager. The baby’s father is Arch B. Kelley III, 43, a boat salesman.

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Live Through This: Courtney Love, lead singer of Hole, says she put a gun to her head and threatened to pull the trigger in front of husband Kurt Cobain, just weeks before Cobain committed suicide with a shotgun. “I said, ‘I’m going to pull this (trigger) right now, I cannot see you die,’ ” she said in an interview in the February Spin magazine. “And I was seriously going to blow my head off, right in front of him.” Love said she was despondent over Cobain’s drug problems and his threats of suicide.

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Vive le Sax: A century after the death of Adolphe Sax, France is celebrating his invention, the saxophone. Concerts, radio broadcasts and discussions about the future of saxophone teaching are being held by the French National Conservatory of Music and the Army Museum. Sax, who died Feb. 7, 1894, in Paris, unveiled the revolutionary new instrument in 1844 to great critical acclaim. Music critics said its rich sounds captured the emotional inflections of the human voice better than any other instrument. The saxophone has been a favorite of jazz buffs, including President Clinton, an amateur saxophonist who visited Sax’s birthplace in Dinant, Belgium, three days after D-Day celebrations last June.

QUOTABLE

“I feel so much better, I can’t even tell you. I lived with this pain of degenerative arthritis for 10 years, and never told anybody because I was ashamed of it. I don’t know why. Also, you know, you start lying and people say, like in airports, ‘What’s the matter with your leg?’ and you say, ‘New shoes.’ ”

--Liza Minnelli, 48, Oscar-winning actress-dancer, as she checked out of Century City Hospital last week on crutches five days after a hip replacement operation.