Business Notes HOLLYWOOD

When aspiring movie mogul Giancarlo Parretti visited the White House Oval Office two weeks ago, he boasted to President Bush that he would soon complete the cliff-hanging takeover of MGM/UA Communications and would make "the lion roar as it did in its heyday." This time he may not eat his words. After months of legal and financial maneuvers, Parretti's Pathe Communications is expected this week to wrap up the $1.3 billion acquisition of MGM/UA from financier Kirk Kerkorian.

A onetime waiter who is appealing a conviction for fraudulent bankruptcy in his native Italy, Parretti raised cash for the deal by tapping European companies he controls and selling rights to movies controlled by Pathe and MGM/UA. Time Warner agreed to pay $125 million for home-video rights to the 1,700 films in the studios' library. Time Warner, which dropped a breach-of- contract suit that it had filed earlier against Parretti, also bought home- video rights to 11 current and forthcoming movies, including Quigley Down Under and Rocky V.