It’s Not About What You Think It’s About

The Scene: A Day-of-the-Locust-sized crush of limousines and looky-loos at the Hollywood Galaxy Cinema on Wednesday for the premiere of “So I Married an Axe Murderer,” starring “Saturday Night Live” alumnus and “Wayne’s World” denizen Mike Myers. The movie, according to Myers, who had a hand in writing it, is about a “poet who’s so afraid of getting married that he thinks he’s going to die.”

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Who Was There: More than 1,000 guests heavy with industry brass. Cast members included Myers, co-stars Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, Amanda Plummer and director Thomas Schlamme. Other familiar faces were Schlamme’s wife, Christine Lahti carrying their as-yet-unborn twins, James Caan, Ed Begley Jr., Lou Diamond Phillips, Steven Wright, Matt Dillon, Tawny Kitaen, Blythe Danner and Ross Malinger from “Sleepless in Seattle.”

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What They Wore: The invitation requested that everyone wear plaid since Myers’ character, Charlie MacKenzie, is from Scottish stock, (he also plays the part of his father, a bitter, foul-mouthed Highlander with an engaging brogue) and the movie has MacJokes aplenty. Besides sporting a swath of tartan, many guests, apparently matching color scheme to comedy type, came dressed in black.

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How You Knew It Was An Industry Event: During the opening credits, the biggest applause went to the music supervisor.

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Quoted I: “It’s not a movie about an ax murderer,” says co-producer Cary Woods. “It’s about commitment and fear of commitment.”

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Quoted II: “It’s not a movie about Wayne running away from a psycho chick killer,” says co-producer Robert Fried, who should know, since he came up with the film’s concept. “It’s a movie about what goes on in a guy’s mind when he gets close to commitment, how he would project onto a woman flaws, faults, that may not be there.”

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What The Movie Is About . . . NOT!: See above.

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What They Ate: Every edible sight gag in the movie was given culinary representation at the post-screening party. Kosher hot dogs, a North Beach-style cappuccino counter and meat sandwiches. For daintier palates, there was pasta, sushi and other lighter fare that may only be visible when the studio releases the director’s cut.

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What They Rocked To: Something of an audio duel went on between the likes of Nirvana, pumping out of the PA system courtesy of Towards 2000 DJs, and a live bagpiper.

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Freebies: “So I Married an Axe Murderer” cassettes, pins and KROQ stickers.

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Overheard: “How do I know everybody in the movie?” answered one insider to his questioner. “Why, they’re all my clients.”