HOLLYWOOD HABITS : Sony’s Latest Invention: the $15.25 Burger : The old MGM commissary in Culver City is now the Rita Hayworth Dining Room, with Tiffany china no less.

It’s one of the priciest, most upscale new lunch spots on the Hollywood block. Its classic Art Deco style dining room is appointed with customized Tiffany china and flatware, expensive fresh flowers and a baby grand in the corner. Framed black-and-white photographs of stars from Hollywood’s Golden Era adorn the walls. Waiters in black-and-gold striped vests and crisp white shirts serve you with a smile.

But this is no ordinary West Hollywood trendy cafe--not Emporio Armani Express, Jackson’s or even the new Morton’s. Rather, it’s the commissary for Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures on the Sony Pictures studio lot in the heart of Culver City.

The Rita Hayworth Dining Room, named for one of Columbia’s biggest stars in the ‘40s and ‘50s, is Sony’s renovated ‘90s version of the former historic MGM commissary, which first opened its doors in the 1930s.

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And this commissary, unlike any other of the Hollywood studios’ on-site eateries, has been the buzz of the Sony lot since opening March 25.

Crudites are not your usual garden variety; they include sumptuous grapes, walnuts and focaccia breadsticks; appetizers, $7.25 apiece, include asparagus soup with a black olive crouton and pepper-crusted, seared rare ahi tuna with buckwheat vegetable vermicelli and ginger peanut sauce. A hamburger will set you back $15.25--the set price for the half-dozen main courses, among which you’ll also find such dishes as grilled salmon with fennel polenta, green beans and blood oranges, or baby monkfish tails with mashed potatoes, escarole and savory essence.

The Sides and Tid Bits, at the more palatable price of $3 each, include crispy buttermilk-fried onion rings or a green lentil salad. Desserts, $5 apiece, range from tangelo blood orange granita with strawberries, apricots and almond biscotti to Valhrona chocolate creme brulee with cat’s tongues cookies.

There is also a prix-fixe menu, for $22.50 a person (including a first course, main course and coffee or tea, but no dessert), as well as the option of ordering any item a la carte.

For traditionalists, there is always matzo ball soup ($7.25), honoring MGM founder Louis B. Mayer and his Columbia Pictures counterpart Harry Cohn, who served it in their respective commissaries.

And by the way, regardless of whether or not you like the service, a service charge of at least 16% (last week it was 20%) is automatically added to the check.

Some of the studio’s own insiders as well as rivals are scoffing at this latest upscale addition to Sony’s multimillion-dollar face-lift of the entire lot, which has been shepherded by Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Peter Guber since Columbia and TriStar relocated there from Burbank in June, 1990. Others can’t praise the new dining room enough, saying it’s high time there was a classy place to dine with business associates in Culver City.

One senior executive on the lot, who claims to have eaten in the dining room just once “only because I had to,” gripes: “It epitomizes Sony. It’s pretentious, overdone and expensive.” Several said they found the customized Tiffany place settings, which feature an abstract graphic of the Sony studio gates, a bit much for everyday commissary dishware.

On the other hand, one Columbia-based producer enthuses, “The dining room is great. It serves everyone’s needs. And you don’t have to drive a half-hour each way to get to a fancy restaurant. Now we can get agents and filmmakers to come here, whereas before it was hard to lure them to the lot.”

Jim Wiatt, president of the International Creative Management agency, said that he was so impressed with the room he suggested to his recent lunch host, Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Co. Chairman Mark Canton, “You ought to open this as a dinner place.”

William Morris Agency President Jerry Katzman thought “it was kind of fun” and that compared to other “indistinguishable” studio commissaries, “this one really stands out.” But Katzman admitted he’d still prefer going to an off-the-lot restaurant, since at a studio commissary “you spend most of your time standing and saying hello to everyone--it could be a scene in ‘The Player.’ ”

For their part, Sony officials say they’re proud of their on-campus Morton’s, which seats between 125 and 130 diners. The yearlong restoration, they say, was undertaken with great reverence for the past and is an homage to the old MGM commissary’s regular patrons like Hayworth, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.

Most of Sony’s top brass, including Canton and Guber, frequent the dining room three or four times a week, according to a studio official.

“The objective was to make this a full-service facility for filmmakers, talent and (some 2,000) employees,” says a Sony spokesman, who’s quick to point out the commissary is just one of four food services offered on the lot, which also include the new Gower Cafe (serving inexpensive pizzas); the Grill, a year-old, ‘50s-style diner (soups, salads, sandwiches), and the Sony Pictures Pantry (fresh prepackaged salads and sandwiches), which is across the street in the Sony Pictures Plaza.

Tighter dollars in the last year or two have caused studio insiders to “do lunch” more frequently at their own studio commissaries, which generally operate at a deficit. (Executives simply charge their lunches back to the studio.)

Though historically they have not been known for good food, commissaries have typically been much cheaper than trendy restaurants, while still providing schmoozing opportunities in a somewhat more private setting. In the last couple of years, most Hollywood studios have updated their commissaries, adding healthier California cuisine-type dishes to their menus and importing hot young chefs. The chef at the Rita Hayworth is Jules Paulk, most recently the sous-chef at San Francisco’s One Market Plaza.