The scene: A screening and party, Santa...

The scene: A screening and party, Santa Monica style, for “Ginger Ale Afternoon,” a super-low budget Skouras Pictures movie that opens Friday. Unlike Hollywood screenings, or Beverly Hills screenings, or even Westwood screenings, this one was strangely low voltage. Odd, but there was nary an agent in sight. Maybe it was the location (Laemmle’s Monica Theatre) or the night of the week (Monday) or the movie itself, set in a trailer park, featuring a visibly pregnant woman wearing a bikini and her philandering husband. After the movie, it was party time at the club, At My Place, for serious blues-ing with the Cash McCall Blues Band and an appearance by the legendary Willie Dixon, who composed the score. The buzz: You’ve heard it before, you’ll hear it again: There’d be no Rolling Stones if it weren’t for Dixon. Adults lost their cool in the presence of the 72-year-old luminary. Even Chris Kuchler, president of Varese Sarabande Records, which is releasing the sound track, asked Dixon to autograph his CD sleeve. Who was there: From the movie, actors Dana Andersen, John M. Jackson and Yeardley Smith, playwright Gina Wendkos, director Rafal Zielinski, co-producer Susan Shapiro, Skouras Pictures’ Tom and Patti Skouras. Also, songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman; hotelier Jacques Camus; one bona fide star, Olivia Newton-John; one member of royalty, Princess Maria Christina of Belgium; and brother and sister act Dweezil and Moon Zappa. Dress mode: Free for all. Dixon wore a tux. Newton-John went country in flowing ankle-length white cotton. The princess went go-go in a silver leather miniskirt, black hose and silver pumps. Everyone else wore black. The food: Early ‘70s flashback. One buffet table with onion dip and veggies, guacamole, chicken wings and, segueing into the ‘80s . . . pizza. Open bar. Quoted: From the nervous and excited director Zielinski, “The movie is based on a play I saw last year with Dana Andersen, who was 9 1/2 months pregnant at the time--I’m sorry, eight months and one week pregnant. We put the movie together--financing and preproduction--in nine days and started shooting four days before her due date. She delivered right on schedule.” Overheard: A young male enthusiast for the film, referring to the expectant female lead: “After looking at her stomach for 15 minutes, I kind of wondered, ‘How I could take this?’ But you kind of get used to it.” Health alert: Did someone hang no-smoking sign or what? At My Place was smoke-free.