Hot-Ticket Party for Younger Set

To those without children, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might need some explanation.

They’re celebrities of the first rank: cartoon characters, TV stars and heroes of their own comic strip. They’re on the cover of this week’s TV Guide, and they’ve snagged a spot on Barbara Walters’ Oscar Night special. On Sunday morning, the overgrown, overexposed reptiles were the stars at the splashy world premiere of New Line Cinema’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.”

New Line chairman Robert Shaye called the Turtles a “cultural phenomenon,” but judging from the party, they might be more precisely defined as a marketing phenomenon. There were turtle sweaters and turtle buttons and turtle plates and napkins and cups and books and bags and tapes and T-shirts and pies and all sorts of other distractions designed to empty piggy banks.

The noontime party, held in a giant tent at Universal City, was the hottest ticket in town for the playground set--the preteen equivalent of Spago on Oscar Night. The tent was decorated in a New York theme, with a Statue of Liberty, a mock subway car (without muggers or graffiti) and a newsstand that advertised the New York Times (but stocked the Orange County Register).

Adult admission was $125, and kiddie tickets went for $50; proceeds went to the Permanent Charities Committee of the Entertainment Industries, earmarked for three PCC beneficiaries: the American Oceans Campaign (represented by Ted Danson), Clinica Para Las Americas (represented by Esai Morales), and Tripod (represented by Linda Bove).

Also on hand were Michael Landon, Olivia Newton-John, Henry Winkler, Maximilian Schell, Mike Ovitz, Bruce Boxleitner, Jane Seymour, Robin Williams and Beau Bridges, most of whom brought their children.

There was a buffet of ice cream sandwiches, salad and several varieties of pizza--pepperoni, barbecue chicken and, believe it or not, peanut butter. There were also an arts and crafts area, a performance by recording artist Ya Kid K, a Ninja dance routine to the music of Vanilla Ice, picture opportunities with the Turtles and a martial arts demonstration.

There was one ugly moment outside the tent when a Turtle pulled off his foam rubber head to reveal . . . a rather sweaty woman. Some illusions might have been shattered by this mock turtle revelation, but this is, after all, Hollywood. In a town where Lassie can be a boy, why can’t a Ninja Turtle be a girl?