At Premiere, Hawke Directs the Audience

Ethan Hawke is animated and chatty. He wears characteristic mussed hair, scruff on his chin and a casual gray suit, no tie, with a wide-collared shirt. His wife, Uma Thurman, is elsewhere, tending to their two children, while Hawke oversees the quiet premiere of his directorial debut, “Chelsea Walls.” It’s Monday night. The sun is setting behind the Laemmle Sunset 5 theater on Sunset Boulevard as a modest crowd of reporters and photographers awaits the parade of Hawke’s celebrity friends. Few arrive, aside from the film’s stars Kris Kristofferson, Frank Whaley and Robert Sean Leonard. (Others, including Thurman, Natasha Lyonne, Minnie Driver and Julie Delpy skipped the premiere in favor of the after-party at Chateau Marmont.)

The film revolves around life in New York’s Chelsea Hotel, a legendary artists’ enclave, and Kristofferson, who portrays a tortured writer in the movie, talks about his real-life experience staying there in the 1970s when Patti Smith was “just a little girl,” and Andy Warhol was there to watch other artists perform like “a built-in audience.”

Before the premiere, red velvet ropes divide the press line from Crunch, the bustling gym next door. A few sweat-stained people, drinking from water bottles, watch Hawke talk about his film.

Later, Hawke tells the audience: “This movie was such a New York experience for me. It’s strange to open it here with you tonight. [The film is] a little bit wrong for the premiere vibe.” And he’s right. “Chelsea Walls” is a picture about dark moods and lonely nights.

Hawke prepares the audience with a short meditation. “I want you all to think of this as if it’s 10 years from now. It’s a Sunday night and you just had the most horrible misunderstanding with the most important person in your life. And you really want to get drunk.” Then, he asks the audience to imagine that instead of reaching for a bottle, they decided to see his film. “Should I tell this to all the critics?” he quips.

Food, Fame and ‘Dinner for Five’

“It always comes back to food,” said Jon Favreau. “Food is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter how important your career is, or how crazy your personal life is. When dinner is served, that’s the most important thing.”

The writer and star of “Swingers” wasn’t talking about the potato pancakes with mango and apple chutney being passed around as appetizers at a cocktail party at the Argyle Hotel on Monday night. Rather, Favreau held forth on food and fame as key ingredients in “Dinner for Five,” his new reality-based series for the Independent Film Channel. In each episode, Favreau hosts a dinner for a group of Hollywood friends, guiding conversations that circle from food to fame to the inevitable topic: Hollywood.

The cocktail party and screening at the Argyle gave Favreau another chance to play the host and to surround himself with his friends in the business, including Jennifer Beals and Vince Vaughn.

Though “Dinner for Five” depends on its celebrity guest list, Favreau said he didn’t want a “glossy show.” “It’s more laid-back. There’s no censorship, it’s looser,” he said--especially since guests had an opportunity to sit in the editing room and see that any comments they regretted were removed.

Favreau’s main concern, he said, was making his guests feel comfortable. “You try to invite people who would know each other and [get along].” Vaughn, who appears in the show as a guest, added that the experience felt like a real dinner party, he said, not a show.

Guests during the series, which premiered this week, include Andy Dick, Peter Falk, Marilyn Manson, Christian Slater and other Hollywood friends whose lesser-known sides Favreau hoped to reveal.

For instance? “Marilyn Manson knows more about indie film than anyone I know,” Favreau said.

Quote/Unquote

“When I was out there and competing, and doing well in the competition, I was quite satisfied and happy,” said Walter Cronkite in the upcoming May issue of GQ magazine. “ ... What is bothersome today is that I’m not competing at all. I’m not in the game. And that is annoying. I wouldn’t say it’s worrisome, because I know damn well I’m never going to be in the game. But it is annoying.”

Sightings

Maria Shriver and KISS’ Gene Simmons lunching Thursday at the Ivy on Robertson Boulevard--at separate tables.... Fabio taking a morning walk Friday with his large dog on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.... Cameron Diaz and Jared Leto at the Bauhaus coffeehouse in Seattle.... Beck dining at Birds on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.

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City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. E-mail: [email protected]