It Was Almost Like Being There

The Scene: Monday’s premiere of Miramax’s “54.” The tale of Manhattan’s late-’70s hothouse of hedonism--the Studio 54 disco--screened at Mann’s Chinese theater.

Who Was There: Stars Mike Myers, Ryan Phillippe and Salma Hayek; director Mark Christopher; and producer Richard Gladstein; among the 1,100 VIPs slipping past the velvet rope were Hugh Hefner, Lauren Holly, Reese Witherspoon, Julie Delpy, Elizabeth Berkley, Milla Jovovich, Lukas Haas, Anna Paquin, Vincent Gallo, Camilla Overbye Roos, John Burnham, Tom Freston, Steve Stabler and studio execs Harvey Weinstein, Mark Gill and Bobby Cohen.

The Buzz: Myers could get an Oscar nomination for his brilliantly nuanced portrayal of club owner Steve Rubell. There were, however, lesser expectations for the film itself. One guest said it was “strictly for the bridge and tunnel crowd.”

Quoted: On getting the right smarmy-funny-cruel balance of Rubell, Myers said, “The best advice I got was from my mother, who said, ‘Remember, the villain is the hero of his own story.’ ”

The Party: What film could make for a better theme? Jeffrey Best transformed a 15,000-square-foot Raleigh Studios sound stage with drag queens who tossed glitter on arriving guests, a VIP balcony with banquettes and beds with satin sheets, dozens of slide and video projectors showing scenes from the ‘70s, a blond transvestite on a swing above the dance floor, a woman in gauze riding a white stallion, smoke machines and a deafness-inducing sound system that was appropriate, said Merle Ginsberg, because the original 54 “wasn’t about talking. It was about looking.”

Overheard: “If you enjoy this, you didn’t learn anything from the movie,” said guest Eric Gardner as he wandered through the crowd.

Glitches: Long lines, metal barriers, overworked security guards, angry guests claiming they were “on the list” and crowds pushed out onto the sidewalk were all part of the scene at the theater’s will-call table. The melee so evoked Studio 54’s notorious exclusionary door policy that one guest said, “Why didn’t they just invite people and then not let them in?”

Noted: As she watched the male champagne servers wearing little more than gold body paint pass through the crowd, MTV’s Robin Berlin commented, “I guess that’s how the Tin Man got his start.”

Critique: A number of veterans of the original disco said the film toned down the club’s homosexual component. Making a film about Studio 54 that tones down the gay element is like doing a documentary on India and minimizing the part about Hinduism.

Tagline: Allan Carr, a renowned survivor of the disco era, left the party with these words, “This was a nice try, but they ain’t making hedonism like they used to.”