Becalmed by ‘Wind’ Premiere

The Scene: The recent non-splashy premiere of Tri-Star’s sailing saga “Wind,” Carroll Ballard’s film about learning to win by working with nature’s elements instead of against them. There was just a modest strip of red carpet outside the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and not much need for the paparazzi to push and shove, although they kept Jennifer Grey outside the theater for a while as her escort, Liam Neeson in rumpled suit, hovered in the lobby incongruously clutching Grey’s pink mohair sweater.

Who Was There: Not Grey’s co-star in “Wind,” Matthew Modine. He was reported to be spending the night shooting his guest-star role in Bob Altman’s “Short Cuts.” So Grey was the chief focus of admirers at the post-screening reception as she posed for pictures with her parents, Joel Grey and Jo Wilder, while Neeson lurked dutifully in the background--no easy task considering his height compared to the Grey family. Producers Mata Yamamoto and Tom Luddy were also surrounded by well-wishers, and composer Basil Poledouris was getting his due for his score. Also on hand were James Woods, Richard Dean Anderson and that loving couple Twiggy and Leigh Lawson, who enjoyed the movie even though Twiggy remarked: “You couldn’t get me on one of those boats. I’d be sick.”

The Charity: American Oceans Campaign, a nonprofit, nonpartisan international environmental organization to protect coastal waters, estuaries, bays, wetlands and the oceans. The organization’s message was shown on-screen in a parody of the famous “From Here to Eternity” roll-in-the-waves love scene, T-shirts featuring a variety of “Help Us Turn the Tide” slogans were on sale, and the campaign’s president, Ted Danson, was there eloquently voicing the plea that “the oceans give us life, it’s time we returned the favor.”

Fashion Statement: The usual mix of the uninteresting and the unsuitable, the concerned charity types dressing up more than the mere Hollywoodites. Worth noticing were Kate Jackson, elegant in a black pantsuit, and the pretty, animated Grey getting away with a quaint found-in-the-attic-type outfit.

Quoted: “Just for a start, it was great to see a movie in which no one was shot, killed, mugged or raped,” Neeson commented. Grey’s father said: “It was great to see Jennifer as such a heroine without any of those feminist cliches.”

Non-Environmental Corner: The patio, where a small group, including Neeson, were smoking. “We’ll burn in hell. I’m sort of looking forward to it, actually,” the quintessentially Irish Neeson remarked between puffs.