A Thriller They Can Understand

The Scene: Thursday’s West Coast premiere of Castle Rock’s “Dolores Claiborne” at the Mann Village Theater with an after-party at Chaya Brasserie. The press kit describes the film as “a dramatic psychological thriller about a woman accused of murdering her notoriously difficult employer.” One guest noted that considering some of Hollywood’s notoriously difficult studio execs, “she could be conducting a UCLA Extension class.”

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Who Was There: The film’s stars, Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh; director Taylor Hackford; and screenwriter Tony Gilroy; plus 1,500 guests at the screening (250 at the party) including Rene Russo, Quentin Tarantino, Alfre Woodard, Kim Cattrall, Jennifer Beals, Carl Reiner, Castle Rock’s Alan Horn, Martin Shafer and Andy Scheinman, and Billy Crystal, who said he planned to spend Oscar night “sitting at home, watching the show, having some pizza and wondering, like everyone else, ‘Why is this so long?’ ”

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Quoted: Regarding the effect of researching her role as a writer by spending time with journalists, Leigh said, “Though I’ve probably learned everything there is to know about giving an interview where you say absolutely nothing, now it’s harder to do. Now I feel for them.”

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Noted: Castle Rock has put considerable emotional stock in its Oscar contender, “The Shawshank Redemption.” As one exec said: “We’ve resorted to prayer, crossing fingers, lighting candles and sacrificing a bull to Zeus.”

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Hollywood Moments: An industry-savvy woman recounted a recent dinner at Drai’s restaurant: “Barbara Walters was at the next table with Kato Kaelin. They’re talking and then all of a sudden she turns to me and says, ‘Don’t you think he should get his hair cut?’ It was, like, ‘I don’t know either of you.’ ”

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Tagline: Leigh said: “The lowest common denominator in conversation is O.J.”