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

POP/ROCK

So Much for the Search: Durst Misses Borland

After a much-publicized national tour to find a replacement for guitarist Wes Borland, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is nostalgic for the old days. So much so that, on Friday, he posted Borland’s e-mail address on the group’s Web site, asking fans to plead with the face-painted musician to “come back to the family.”

On Monday, Durst reported that “Borland has received your e-mails and has responded negatively.” But that’s no reason to give up, he said.

“Borland replied by saying that 75% of all his e-mails were telling him to never be with Limp Bizkit,” Durst said. “I’m glad some of you feel that way, but we don’t--and we’re not fair-weather friends. We love Wes and have done so through our good and bad times.”

Borland, considered key to the band’s sound and creative output, left Limp Bizkit in October after seven years and three albums. The rap-rock group is continuing on its follow-up to “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water” released in 2000. It has narrowed its search for a replacement to four finalists.

MOVIES

Russell Crowe Tops Poll of Biography Readers

During precarious political times when heroism is at a premium, readers of Biography magazine have voted the tough, pull-no-punches Russell Crowe --star of such films as “A Beautiful Mind,” “Gladiator” and “The Insider”--as their favorite Oscar-winning actor of all time.

As reported in the June issue of the publication, the 37-year-old New Zealand native rose above 73 years worth of formidable competition, including Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro, to whom he has been compared. Nearly 4,000 readers weighed in online and through mail.

Crowe was followed, in order, by Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks, John Wayne, James Stewart, Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino, Nicolas Cage, De Niro and Paul Newman.

THE ARTS

Berlin Opera House a Danger, Conductor Says

Four days after the collapse of an aged hydraulic stage lift during a performance of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” conductor Daniel Barenboim complained that the crumbling condition of Berlin’s venerable Staatsoper opera house increasingly poses a danger to performers and the audience.

“This really is an illness that no one wants to notice,” Barenboim, the opera’s artistic director since 1992, said at a news conference. “It could be too late by the time the doctor is called.”

Though no one was injured in the accident, parts of the theater decor came down and the performance was delayed for 20 minutes.

Barenboim called for the urgent release of funds to restore the opera house, an 18th century building that was reopened by East German authorities in 1955 after being gutted at the end of World War II. It was last renovated in 1986. The opera management reportedly estimates that $91.7 million is needed to carry out repairs that would fulfill modern safety standards.

Crowds Passing Up Turner for McCartney

At Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery, 74 canvases by Paul McCartney hang next door to an exhibit of works by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). A 1993 oil “Frisbee on the Beach” and other pieces by the former Beatle are far outdrawing Turner’s watercolors, engravings and paintings.

One day last week, only one young woman took the time to inspect the Turners, as near pandemonium reigned nearby as camera crews and crowds awaited the arrival of McCartney. One British radio reporter explained the imbalance this way: “Unfortunately, Turner’s dead and he didn’t make any records.”

McCartney said he and John Lennon hung around the galleries in the 1960s, “probably sagging off” school. “If I had said to John then, ‘I’m going to have an exhibition here one day,’ I think I know what he’d have said.”

His work didn’t impress Bryan Biggs, director of Liverpool’s Bluecoat Arts Centre. He told the Guardian newspaper: “If a student came to the Walker gallery with this show, he or she would be shown the door.”

QUICK TAKES

Director Chris Columbus will not take over the reins of “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” the third installment in the series, Variety reports. Top contender for the job is said to be Alfonso Cuaron (“Y Tu Mama Tambien” and “ A Little Princess”).... Sylvester Stallone’s wife, Jennifer Flavin Stallone, gave birth to the couple’s third child, Scarlet Rose, on Saturday.... For its first acquisition, Vivendi Universal’s new specialty label Focus has bought U.S. and certain international distribution rights to Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist”--winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Variety reports....Singer Nate Dogg was sentenced to one year of probation in Kingman, Ariz., after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession....Meg Ryan will play boxing manager Jackie Kallen in “Against the Ropes,” which will co-star “ER’s” Omar Epps and be directed by Charles Dutton....After 12 years and three studio albums, Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson have announced the demise of Hole, the band they founded together.