Celebrating the Drama of a Narrow Escape

The Scene: Monday’s screening of Orion’s “Love Field” at the Mann Plaza in Westwood. A party for 200 followed at the Maple Drive restaurant in Beverly Hills. The movie’s release had been delayed for more than a year by Orion’s recently resolved bankruptcy proceedings. The screening was less a premiere than an awakening from judicial coma. “It’s a very surreal feeling,” said co-producer Midge Sanford. “It’s almost like a dream--that people actually saw it tonight.”

Who Was There: The film’s stars Michelle Pfeiffer (with Emmy-winning TV producer David E. Kelley) and Dennis Haysbert; producers Sanford and Sarah Pillsbury, and guests Harry Hamlin, James Woods, Barbet Schroeder, Brendan Fraser, Alan Parker and Orion chairman John Kluge, who said that to the best of his knowledge, “Orion is the only film company ever to come out of bankruptcy. It feels like a new beginning.”

Subplot: The delay could be a blessing in disguise. It’s been a terrible year for female lead roles. Even before the film opens, Pfeiffer is a strong Oscar contender.

Omens: The film company went bankrupt, the bankruptcy judge wouldn’t let it release the film for a year and it rained the day of the premiere. With luck like that, how could you not win an Oscar?

Quoted: Pfeiffer said she felt “a little strange, somewhat detached, but happy there’s a sense of closure.” “It’s been very frustrating,” said co-producer Pillsbury. “In a town where it’s ‘What have you done lately?’ and what you’ve done lately is on the shelf somewhere.”

Vocabulary: On the shelf. A film, usually one with problems, awaiting release. “There’s connotation about ‘on the shelf’ that’s not good,” said Pillsbury. “I prefer ‘being held hostage by bankruptcy proceedings.’ ”

Chow: A splendid array. Just because the company is newly released from bankruptcy doesn’t mean it serves freight-damaged frozen dim sum at a premiere.

Dress Mode: It’s amazing how, with a little rain and a lot of Eddie Bauer, L.A. looks like Seattle.

Trend: Men of studied androgyny affecting 1930s Noel Coward. This style fit in at the post-screening reception where, in one screenwriter’s words, “between the rain, the live piano music and the cocktails, it feels like a party on a cruise ship.”