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

Boys Still on Top: The Backstreet Boys’ “Millennium” remains No. 1 on the nation’s album charts for the second week with sales of 622,000 copies, a strong follow-up to their record-breaking debut week sales of 1.13 million. Ricky Martin and Britney Spears were No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, and the rap duo Insane Clown Posse had the week’s top debut by claiming the No. 4 spot. The nation’s No. 1 single for the second straight week: “If You Had My Love” by Jennifer Lopez.

Jackson’s Baby ‘Fine’: Michael Jackson’s wife, Debbie Rowe Jackson, has denied reports that her 2-year-old son, Prince, is so sick that his life is in danger. “He’s fine,” she told KNBC-TV Tuesday night. “He is not dying. He has had a virus infection and he’s going to be fine.” Reports about the boy’s illness began Tuesday when tenor Luciano Pavarotti told Italian concertgoers to pray for Jackson’s son because he “may be dying.” Jackson’s record label then said that the boy had suffered a “serious seizure” over the weekend due to a high temperature.

TV & MOVIES

The Write Stuff: A top cadre of film and television writers will take part in the Writers Guild’s second “Words Into Pictures: Film and Television Writers Forum” Friday through Sunday at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Panelists including David E. Kelley, Wes Craven, Matt Groening, Harry Shearer, Ron Bass, James L. Brooks, Paul Attansio, Larry David, Callie Khouri, Lawrence Kasdan and Robin Swicord will speak on such topics as “Guns Don’t Kill People, Writers Do,” “Sex and Sensibility: Hollywood When It Sizzles” and “The Big Picture: Movies in the Year 2000.”

Special-Effects Festival: Special-effects masters from “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace” will be among those taking part in Hollywood’s first Festival of Visual Effects, taking place Friday through Sunday at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Leonard Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood. Additional panels will focus on the creation of effects in such films and TV series as “Apollo 13,” “Contact,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Hercules” and “Xena,” as well as in the video game Mortal Kombat and the Muppet creations of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

Festival Funding: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has established a new fund that is expected to give out about $250,000 a year to support film festivals around the world. The initial grantees are the Chicago International Film Festival, New York Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival ($50,000 each) and the New York International Children’s Film Festival ($10,000).

QUICK TAKES

Charles Gibson, who’s doing double duty on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” and “20/20,” returned to work Wednesday after undergoing an emergency angioplasty to clear a blocked artery. Gibson checked himself into a New Jersey hospital on Saturday after having chest pains. “He says he feels fine,” an ABC News spokeswoman said Wednesday. . . . The Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards--honoring local broadcasting including newscasts--will be Webcast live for the first time this year (at https://www.emmys.org), on Saturday at 6 p.m. . . . Cable’s Nickelodeon will premiere its first original Saturday morning series, “SpongeBob SquarePants,” on July 17 at 10 a.m. The animated program chronicles the adventures of a sea sponge.

Quotable: “When I fly over America on my broomstick, as I often do a lot, I get to feeling what a big country this is--it’s big enough for everyone. And despite all the progress that has been made in rights and tolerance, we are still living in a world of hate.”--Elton John, performing Tuesday in Laramie, Wyo., where gay college student Matthew Shepard was fatally beaten last October. The show was a benefit for six tolerance-promotion programs.