More Celebrities Than Seats

The Scene: The Cineplex Odeon Fairfax Tuesday night for the premiere of Mad Dog Pictures’ “Chain of Desire,” followed by a party at Infiniti in West Hollywood. The film is a steamy chain of sexual encounters set against the backdrop of Manhattan island and the peril of AIDS.

*

Who Was There: Cast members included Malcolm McDowell, Seymour Cassel, Grace Zabriskie, Holly Marie Combs, Dewey Weber, Elias Koteas, Kevin Conroy and writer/director Temistocles Lopez. The Hollywood turnout was big. Making the scene were Dustin Hoffman, Barry Levinson, Barbet Schroeder, Patricia and Alexis Arquette, Emily Lloyd and Lesley Ann Warren. The theater quickly filled to capacity. Left without seats, the Arquette sisters graciously opted to sit on the floor.

*

Hollywood Moment: Lopez wrote the film in 15 days and shot it on a budget of $800,000. “I came to Hollywood to shop the script around and people would say, ‘It’s very well written, but it will never work because it doesn’t have a central character and it doesn’t have sympathetic characters,’ ” Lopez said. “Of course, they’ve been proven wrong.”

*

Charity Matters: Co-sponsored by Planet Homo and Project X magazines, the evening was a benefit for the Shanti Foundation, a nonprofit, community-based organization that provides counseling and support to people affected by HIV and AIDS.

*

Chow: Popcorn, Red Vines and Coke at the theater (no host).

*

Freebies: Condoms, copies of Planet Homo. Also, Planet Homo and “Chain of Desire” T-shirts were given away with every donation to Shanti.

*

Quoted: “I’d like all the young people who see this to be entertained, of course,” said Malcolm McDowell, who plays a TV tabloid journalist. “But months after they’ve seen it, when they’re about to do something stupid, if they could just remember that however remote they think the possibility of their partner having HIV . . . “