MOVIESGarland Discovery: It took some detective work,...

MOVIES

Garland Discovery: It took some detective work, but MGM/UA Home Video says it has pieced together picture and sound of a musical short featuring 7-year-old Judy Garland that was made 65 years ago. The eight-minute one-reeler, “Bubbles,” part of a series known as “The Vitaphone Kiddies,” shows Garland and two siblings appearing as the Gumm Sisters in a 1930 release by Vitaphone, a Warner Bros. subsidiary. A black-and-white negative of the Technicolor film was found at the Library of Congress. Under the technology used in the early talkies, sound was provided separately on a Vitaphone disc--which was missing, according to George Feltenstein, MGM/UA senior vice president. He said researchers tracked down the missing soundtrack through various collectors. The result will be part of “Judy Garland--The Golden Years at MGM,” a laser disc to be released Feb. 22 and costing $124.98. Feltenstein said release of the disc was delayed from last fall so that “Bubbles” could be included.

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Aid for Kobe: A premiere screening of Japan’s Oscar entry has been moved up six months, so it can benefit Kobe earthquake victims, according to Julian Myers, publicist for the animated “Pom Poko.” Those attending the free Thursday night showing at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills will be asked to sign a friendship message and contribute to earthquake relief. Myers described the film as a “drama of environmental dislocation” based on a legend about raccoons. The film was the highest-grossing Japanese feature in Japan in 1994 but has no distribution arrangements in the United States, which is why no premiere had been scheduled until now, Myers said. He said some tickets may be available at the door.

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Pudding for Two: Michelle Pfeiffer and Tom Hanks were named woman and man of the year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding theater club. Pfeiffer will lead a parade through Harvard Square and receive the traditional pot on Feb. 13. Hanks gets his pot and a roast on Feb. 21. In naming Pfeiffer, the group said, “Despite her stunning movie star looks, Michelle Pfeiffer has turned in Oscar-caliber performances that have defied typecasting.” Hanks was praised for the sensitivity of his acting in such films as “Philadelphia”--for which he won an Oscar in 1993--and his current hit, “Forrest Gump.”

ART

Long Journey Ends: After court battles that overturned the wishes of a collector who died in 1951, followed by a record-breaking world tour, paintings displayed in a suburban gallery for more than a half century will finally hang four miles away in Philadelphia. “From Cezanne to Matisse: Great French Paintings From the Barnes Foundation” opens today at the Philadelphia Museum of Art after a yearlong tour. For some 70 years, Dr. Albert Barnes’ collection of 2,500 paintings had remained in a gallery in Merion Township, accessible to relatively few visitors. The works were arranged in haphazard order designed to illustrate Barnes’ unique views on art education, emphasizing color and technique over historical, biographical approaches. The Philadelphia showing will be roughly in chronological order, with the museum hoping for 250,000 visitors before the exhibition ends April 9. Five times that number saw the collection at Musee D’Orsay in Paris, the most profitable art exhibition ever in Europe, and nearly a half million viewed the Barnes exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

POP/ROCK

Springsteen Rolling: Bruce Springsteen has recorded two more songs with his old E Street Band, doubling the total of new tracks for a Feb. 28 greatest hits album. Added are “Murder, Inc.,” a new version of a much-bootlegged song that was originally recorded a decade ago, and “Blood Brothers.” This increased activity has boosted rumors of a spring or summer Springsteen/E Street reunion tour, though the artist’s representative says there are still no tour plans.

QUICK TAKES

Cher has submitted plans to build a 14,000-square-foot Venetian-Moorish-Gothic house on La Gorce Island, Fla., that will circle a fountained courtyard. . . . Whoopi Goldberg plans to stick her hair in wet cement to immortalize her trademark braids in the forecourt of Mann’s Chinese Theater in a Thursday ceremony. . . . Dennis Hopper has joined the North Carolina Film Council, which was created in May to help attract the film industry to the state. Hopper filmed “Blue Velvet,” “Super Mario Brothers” and “Chasers” in North Carolina. . . . Seven-year-old Mara Wilson, who warmed hearts in “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Miracle on 34th Street,” will be honored as young star of the year at the NATO/ShoWest ’95 film industry convention March 9 in Las Vegas. . . . Dorrance Smith, who left ABC in 1991 to work in the Bush Administration, returns to his former spot as executive producer of “This Week With David Brinkley.” He also exec-produced “Nightline.”