Hollywood Takes ‘Wrong Turn’ to Party

Everybody wants to be in a Garry Marshall or Lowell Ganz production when they grow up.

Or so it seemed at the Thursday night party at the Coronet Theater after the opening-night performance of “Wrong Turn at Lungfish,” directed and co-written by Marshall (“Happy Days,” “Mork and Mindy,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Pretty Woman,” “Beaches”) and Ganz (“City Slickers,” “Parenthood,” “Splash!”).

Television and movie stars galore were on hand, among them Billy Crystal, Dick Van Dyke, Laura San Giacomo, Judith Light, Tom Bosley, Katherine Helmond, Raquel Welch, Carrie Fisher, Marshall’s sister Penny Marshall, Carole King, Joan Severance and Jack Klugman, plus the play’s stars, George C. Scott, Laurie Metcalf and an enthusiastic Tony Danza.

“I don’t know if it’s just because I’m in it or because it’s really a great play, but I really think it’s incredible,” Danza said of the production.

The women turned out in big hair in all colors and slightly sheer, ankle-length floral skirts and dresses. For the men, there was a return to open-necked button-down shirts instead of the walking Gap ad T-shirt look.

The buzz in the crowd was the Dan Quayle-”Murphy Brown” fracas, which didn’t play well here. “I think they’re detestable,” agent Sam Cohn said of Quayle’s sentiments. “I can’t get over the jury decision for Rodney King or the Dan Quayle remarks afterward,” said Raquel Welch.

As for actress/screenwriter Carrie Fisher, 7 1/2 months pregnant and unmarried, she chortled: “I think Mr. Quayle has his finger on the pulse of the nation.”

In other remarks noted, Hollywood has become a verb. “My wife and I don’t Hollywood,” said screenwriter/playwright Ganz. “I don’t hang out. I’m not lunching. I write seven hours a day, go home and watch my son play T-ball. We live in the Valley and like it.”