A Low-Key Cheese and Fruit Kind of Premiere

The Scene: The benefit premiere of “The Piano,” director Jane Campion’s latest film, at the Directors Guild on Wednesday night (see movie review, F1). Intense industry execs and celebs from Donna Mills to Jack Nicholson hung around after the film for brie and low-key schmooze in the lobby, where photographers excitedly tried to capture Sean Penn in their lenses. The evening netted about $40,000 for the Actors’ Fund of America, which aids entertainment professionals in need.

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The Buzz: The audience was divided into two camps--near rabid devotees of Australian director Campion, and those who had seen neither of her previous films, “Sweetie” and “An Angel at My Table.” Those familiar with Campion’s work smugly touted her. “What? You haven’t seen her other films? Well you’ll just have to rent them.”

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Who Was There: Campion; the film’s stars, Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel, and producer Jan Chapman; guests Andy Garcia, John Lithgow, Marlee Matlin, Harry Hamlin, Jacqueline Bisset, Carrie Fisher, Dina Merrill, Annabella Sciorra, Disney’s Jeffrey Katzenberg, Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, Ridley Scott, and Miramax co-chairmen and co-founders, brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein.

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Dress Mode: For men, leather and jeans or jeans and jackets or jackets and ties or jackets and no ties. Women opted for the no-nonsense power suit or the opposite look--waifish, long filmy dresses with velvet chokers.

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Chowing Down: A buffet courtesy of It’s Our Party featured cheeses, fish mousses, crackers, fruit and brownies. Either people ate before they arrived or everyone’s trying to take off some pre-holiday weight, because for once the tables weren’t decimated 10 minutes after the movie let out.

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What Price Fame, Part I: Although Campion may not be as recognizable as, say, Steven Spielberg, she has her following. “I was lining up to get a coffee in some obscure railway station in Italy,” she recalled, “and some film student said, ‘Are you . . . J-J-Jane C-C-Campion?’ And I mean, God, I had only just gotten up.”

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What Price Fame, Part II: After answering some brief, innocuous questions from a reporter, the press-shy Bob Weinstein heaved a huge sigh of relief and said, “Whew, OK, that’s over. I guess that wasn’t so bad.”

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Quoted: “I do think audiences are becoming more and more open to a more provocative, seductive kind of movie-making,” Hunter said.

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Overheard: “Did you not love ‘Sweetie’?” said a man to his friend about Campion’s first film having to do with a psychotic young woman. “Sweetie was like my sister, so that’s why it disturbed me.”

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Glitches: Next time, could someone turn down the arctic air conditioning in the theater?

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Go Figure: This was the first premiere in memory where the audience didn’t applaud the credits.