Critics' Choice
MOVIES
MY STEPMOTHER IS AN ALIEN. Kim Basinger is an unlikely E.T. and Dan Aykroyd the earthling who humanizes her in a clever fable -- sweet and light enough for the kids, sexy and suspenseful enough for mature adults.
WORKING GIRL. Pert secretary Melanie Griffith climbs the corporate ladder, dislodging career gal Sigourney Weaver and claiming hunky Harrison Ford in Mike Nichols' suave tale about getting it all on your own sweet terms.
TWINS. Danny DeVito. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Twins! Fortunately, this comedy boasts more than tall-guy, short-guy jokes. It has an easy warmth that never slops over into sentiment.
MISSISSIPPI BURNING. As G-men investigating racially motivated murders, Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe become caught up in the civil rights movement. Director Alan Parker powerfully evokes a time and place.
THEATER
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE. John Reed, doyen of the D'Oyly Carte and leading Gilbertian, delights in an off-Broadway stint as Major General Stanley.
THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE. Lily Tomlin's solo sketches, a 1985 Broadway hit, are still poignant and, if anything, funnier. In Detroit through Dec. 24, and on tour through March.
OUR TOWN. For its 50th birthday, Thornton Wilder's nostalgic masterpiece gets the gift of a robust, funny and faithful Broadway production.
MR. CINDERS. Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn., which revives musicals from the heyday of tuneful fluff, has a charmer in this gender reversal of Cinderella.
BOOKS
DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS: A LEXICON NOVEL by Milorad Paviac (Knopf; $19.95). A wacky, totally fabricated reference book, translated from the original Serbo-Croatian, about a people who vanished eight or so centuries ago. Sheer oddity contributes to the eerie entertainment.
DEAR MILI by Wilhelm Grimm (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $16.95). A newly discovered Grimm fairy tale relates a stark saga of childhood and the death of innocence, amplified by Maurice Sendak's floating vistas and romantic palette.
PRIVATE VIEW: INSIDE BARYSHNIKOV'S AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE by John Fraser (Bantam; $30). One season (1986-87) in the life of a great dance company. The text, and the grainy photographs by Eve Arnold, explode with candor.
ART
RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Formica and Celotex are among the odd materials employed by this enigmatic but important American painter and sculptor. Through Jan. 29.
THE ART OF PAOLO VERONESE: 1528-1588, National Gallery of Art, Washington. To see Veronese's glowingly colored, exquisitely textured works is to glimpse the splendor of Venice's Golden Age. Through Feb. 20.
COURBET RECONSIDERED, Brooklyn Museum, New York City. Vast landscapes, lavish nudes and masterly portraits in an ambitious retrospective of paintings by the 19th century realist. Through Jan. 16.
TELEVISION
MOONLIGHTING (ABC, Dec. 27, 9 p.m. EST). How it all began for TV's battling romantic duo: Maddie and David meet cute in a rerun of the series' 1985 pilot.
THE WAY WE WEAR (PBS, Dec. 26, 8 p.m. on most stations). Clothes make the man -- and the society. At least, so argues a Smithsonian World special, examining clothes through the ages.
MUSIC
HANDEL: MESSIAH (Archiv). O thou that tellest good tidings: Handel's hardy perennial gets a definitive performance from Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert & Choir. Hallelujah!
THE TRAVELING WILBURYS, VOL. 1 (Wilbury Records). They look and sound a lot like George Harrison, Bob Dylan and other famous folk. Could it possibly be? The mystery is thin, but the sounds are joyous, making this the good-time record of the year.
SCHUBERT: SYMPHONY NO. 9 (Virgin). Charles Mackerras leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in the aptly nicknamed "Great" C Major Symphony, on original instruments.
STAY AWAKE (A&M). This collection of tunes from Disney films is a bundle of surprises. Suzanne Vega spooks her way through a Mary Poppins ditty; Tom Waits does a mine-shaft version of Heigh Ho; Ringo Starr and Herb Alpert loft When You Wish Upon a Star: beguiling enough to be more than novelty.