WEEK IN PREVIEW

MOVIES

“My Giant” finds Billy Crystal playing a third-rate talent agent who thinks his ticket to the top is a 7-foot-7 Romanian (Gheorghe Muresan), a Shakespeare-quoting caretaker living in a monastery. The film, also featuring Kathleen Quinlan and Zane Carney, opens Friday in general release.

MOVIES

With “The Big One,” “Roger & Me’s” Michael Moore returns to America’s heartland to look at why corporations post record profits yet continue to downsize. Along the way he meets Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen and goes toe to toe with Nike CEO Phil Knight. It opens Friday at selected theaters.

THEATER

Set in a family’s ancestral home, where time shifts between 1809 and the 1990s, Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” is a scintillating interweaving of lessons in the arts and science into poignant romance and a literary mystery revolving around Lord Byron. It opens Friday at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

DANCE

Original stars Michael Flatley and Jean Butler may be gone, but the Irish step-dance spectacle “Riverdance” goes on, with performances at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood starting Friday and scheduled to continue through May 17. Colin Dunne returns, now partnered with Eileen Martin.

ART

Illuminated pages from the 14th century French masterpiece “The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux,” above, go on view Tuesday at the Getty Museum along with “Out-of-Bounds: Marginal Imagery in Illuminated Manuscripts,” an exhibition exploring what can be found in the margins of medieval books.

POP MUSIC

Erykah has arrived and Aretha has returned, but Mary--as in Mary J. Blige--refuses to be dethroned as the decade’s reigning hip-hop soul diva. The fiery singer is joined on Thursdayand Friday nights at the Universal Amphitheatre by young R&B; crown prince Usher.

JAZZ

Freddie Hubbard, inactive in recent years, was one of jazz’s greatest and most exciting trumpeters. His 60th birthday is celebrated at the Vision Theatre in Leimert Park today by the Phil Ranelin Ensemble, Billy Higgins, Dwight Trible, the Horace Tapscott Quintet and the guest of honor himself.

VIDEO

“Boogie Nights,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s vastly entertaining look at the ‘70s porn industry, features Burt Reynolds in the role of his career and a star-making turn by Mark Wahlberg. The film, which earned Oscar nominations for Reynolds and co-star Julianne Moore, arrives on video on Tuesday.

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Early Warning: James Levine will bring his MET Orchestra from New York to UCLA’s Royce Hall on May 17. The soloist: violinist Maxim Vengerov.