And the Theme Was Brazilian Friendly

The Scene: Monday’s premiere of HBO’s “The Burning Season” at the Mann Bruin Theatre, with an after party at the Armand Hammer Museum. The film is based on the true story of Chico Mendes, who was murdered for trying to stop the torching of Brazilian rain forests. “A great deal of Brazil is on fire right now,” said director John Frankenheimer. “It gives a real urgency to this movie.”

Who Was There: The film’s star, Raul Julia; co-stars Edward James Olmos, Sonia Braga, Esai Morales and Nigel Havers; director (or “field marshal,” as one actor referred to him) Frankenheimer; plus 1,200 of the Hollywood ecosystem’s finest including Norman Lear, Ed Begley Jr., Robert Loggia, Tracy Scoggins, Richard Zanuck, Terry Semel, Rob Freidman and HBO execs Michael Fuchs, Bob Cooper and Hutch Parker.

It’s Not the Snakes That Get You, It’s the Burnt Toast: Co-star Kamala Dawson said the Mexican rain forest shooting locale “wasn’t as treacherous as it looked.” However she did say, “room service was a scary thing.”

Overheard: One woman wondered why, “it was necessary for the scene with the nude prostitutes to be 10 minutes long.” Her male friend said, “Well, it depends on how you feel about ratings.”

Scariest New Party Trend: Women who smoke cigars. Not just little cigarillos, but big hulking Havanas. Don’t look for the fad to last--nothing makes a woman look more like Rush Limbaugh than smoking a cigar.

Dress Mode: As usual, lots of black. Whether this was worn in remembrance of charred rain forest land is doubtful.

Vocabulary: “Brazilian friendly.” This was the phrase used by one organizer to describe the considerable effort, including two truckloads of palm and ginger trees plus a major supply of orchids, to transform the Hammer’s courtyard into something forest-like. The irony that Hammer ran an oil company was not lost on some guests.

Quoted: “This is an honorable film, cast and acted out by people who have a right to do it,” said executive producer David Puttnam. “The world’s entitled to have a Third World hero who isn’t depicted by a Brit or an American.”

You Can’t Please Everyone: Four members from two rain forest action groups held banners and passed out literature protesting the use of tropical timber in building the film’s sets. “It’s not true,” said Puttnam. “But if this is the issue they regard as pivotal, as opposed to the potential for this movie to raise the profile of this desperate situation, then their group is never going to have more than four members.”