Changing the Guard at Chasen’s

The Scene: Tuesday’s industry screening of Warner Bros.’ “Sommersby” at Westwood’s Bruin theater. A party followed at Chasen’s, last stronghold of the Reagan generation in Hollywood. “The White House was just a steppingstone to taking over Chasen’s” was one liberal’s geopolitical analysis.

Who Was There: The film’s stars, Richard Gere and Jodie Foster; co-star Bill Pullman; director Jon Amiel; producers Arnon Milchan and Steven Reuther; studio execs Terry Semel and Rob Friedman. Among the 800 at the screening and 475 invited to the party were David Bowie, Nicolette Sheridan, Sharon Stone, Keanu Reeves, Phil Collins, Paul Anka, Lolita Davidovich, Peter Falk, agents Jeff Berg and Ed Limato, and models Iman, Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington.

Chasen’s New Old Crowd: The party’s senior guest was 75-year-old blues legend John Lee Hooker. “He still mingles great,” said an admiring Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones. “Whether it’s with young musicians, or old ones like me.”

The Buzz: The audience was blown away by the film. One screenwriter said he couldn’t remember the last time he “went to a great movie, then went to a party where people had nothing but good things to say about it.”

The Big Question: If it’s so great, why wasn’t it released six weeks earlier to qualify for the ’92 Oscars? “It wasn’t ready,” said Gere, also the project’s executive producer. “It was a slim year for drama,” said Foster.

Dress: Gere came with his left arm in a sling (either the result of a horse fall or “my wife has a dark side,” he joked.) His spouse, model Cindy Crawford, was in basic chic. “I live for the day when I could wear just a sweater, tights and boots,” one woman said with a sigh.

Quoted: “There’s a danger in doing period pieces,” said Foster. “Everybody can get so uptight about corsets and wigs that there’s just a lot of wigged people staring at each other across landscape. You need some kind of contemporary drive that allows people to forget it’s so long ago.”