Shelley Duvall

Hip Canadian circus Cirque du Soleil returned to town for another engagement at the Santa Monica Pier. Wednesday's opening-night performance drew hundreds of Cirque fans, as well as first-timers, to the beach where a party followed the show. In the audience were Matthew Broderick, pictured left, with Helen Hunt, and, at right, Cirque founder and president Guy Laliberte with Scott Baio.

Hey, dudes, want to see how a chunky little kid called "fatso" grew up to be that mountain of muscle, Hulk Hogan? Or how "Anything but Love" star Jamie Lee Curtis learned that revenge isn't so sweet after a shady junior high school caper? "Stories From Growing Up," a mildly beguiling new series on the Nickelodeon cable station, beginning at 7 p.m. today (and repeating Sunday at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Playing with "Blame It on the Bellboy" only at the El Capitan on Hollywood Boulevard is Tim Burton's 29-minute "Frankenweenie" (1984), which is such an inspired, deft pleasure that it is almost worth the price of admission-- almost because of today's steep ticket prices and because "Bellboy" is not that good.

Sony Pictures Entertainment said Tuesday that it has hired Dennis Miller, one of Turner Broadcasting Systems' most senior executives in Hollywood, as an executive vice president. Sources said Miller, president of Turner Pictures, will in effect fill the post soon to be vacated by Sony executive Paul Schaeffer. As previously reported, Schaeffer will soon become the top corporate officer at a new venture being led by former Sony Pictures Chairman Peter Guber.

What child doesn't love a good bedtime story? And what child wouldn't love one read by some of the most engaging actors around? Sunday marks the second season of the animated Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories, all of which are narrated by a lineup of celebrities including Billy Crystal, Charles Grodin, Rhea Perlman, Richard Dreyfuss, Shelley Long, Morgan Freeman, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Begley Jr., Kathy Bates, Duvall and others.

"Here Come the ABCs" Disney Sound/ Walt Disney Records 48 minutes; DVD: $12.98 The offbeat rock duo They Might Be Giants (John Flansburgh and John Linnell) crossed over into children's music with the 2002 CD release "No!," a collection of original songs as musically innovative as they are playfully surreal. Flansburgh and Linnell weren't slumming. After "No!"

"A veritable treasure trove" of children's literature is how the folks at Showtime describe their animated series, "Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories," which premieres Tuesday with new episodes weekly through May 26. Featuring adaptations of popular kids' tales, the shows are narrated by various celebrities and hosted by Duvall, who made a name for herself in kids' TV with the award-winning Showtime series "Fairie Tale Theatre" in 1982.

The Scene: Party Thursday night after the MTV Video Music Awards in Universal Studio Tour's Streets of the World section. These are the adolescent's Oscars. To be 15, to be there and, more importantly, to let your high school friends know you were there, was to die for. Of course, there's no justice in the world: Most of the crowd was over 30. Who Was There: Among the 3,000 guests packing the streets were Lisa Marie Presley, Kim Basinger, M.C.