Lunching With Doc Hollywood

When we arrive at Oliver Sacks’ veranda table at the Four Seasons Hotel, he is scribbling memories of his first love, a childhood passion so intense that nothing equaled it in the half century that followed. Like any doting suitor, Sacks pulls out his wallet to show off a picture of his beloved.

“It’s the icon of chemistry,” he says, caressing a tiny periodic table of the elements. “It’s sort of like having the universe in one’s pocket. I love it.”

You thought we’d settle for writing about someone normal?

We’re here because Sacks belongs to a few very exclusive clubs: He’s an eccentric, hermetic neurologist who nonetheless is so in sync with the zeitgeist that Hollywood has already rung twice. An essay in his book, “An Anthropologist on Mars” (Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), inspired “At First Sight,” the new MGM film, starring Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino, about a blind man who gains vision. Sacks is also the real-life doctor behind the Robin Williams film “Awakenings,” which dramatized his attempt to cure catatonic patients in the Bronx.

That brings us to another of Sacks’ unusual memberships. “A couple of weeks ago, I was at the premiere of ‘Patch Adams’ in New York. I was chatting with Patch Adams and we realized we belong to a very exclusive club of two--the two doctors who’d been portrayed by Robin.”

As Sacks regales us with stories, we discover that he belongs to an even more select society--people who eat salad at the Four Seasons by grabbing fistfuls of lettuce and stuffing them in their mouths.

“I’m sorry to be eating this filthy way,” he says sweetly. “We had a very nice music therapist at the hospital who used to say, ‘I love you Dr. Sacks, but don’t expect me to have lunch with you. I can’t bear to watch you eating.’ ”

Sacks gets to entertain journalists with his nutty eating habits because movie versions of his investigations, as he calls them, are entertaining you. And, he hopes, making you see the world a little differently. The way a blind man does when he gains sight, with all the complications that follow.

“I hope I get it right when I write things. I’m quite fearful when I write. What are my motives? Is this a moral thing to do? I think my motives are to show people in a sympathetic and not voyeuristic sort of way, although I’m very sensitive to comments about ‘Sacks’ freak show,’ which I’ve seen from time to time. If I saw things going wrong on a film, I’d disassociate myself.”

So thank goodness Kilmer behaved himself on the set.

“I went to watch the filming a few times, and I went to say ‘hello’ and he didn’t seem to notice me. And I thought, ‘What a supercilious bastard.’ What I didn’t realize was, in fact, he couldn’t see me. He was actually blinded by these semi-opaque contact lenses. I was very impressed by Val’s attempts to explore blindness.”

A good time was had by Val at Tuesday’s premiere party at Spago in Beverly Hills, where celebrity revelers included “Sight” director Irwin Winkler and stars Kelly McGillis, Nathan Lane and Sorvino, who arrived with Olivier Martinez, le Tom Cruise of France.

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Hey, Anjelica. That wacky bracelet you were wearing at Premiere’s fifth annual Women in Hollywood luncheon Tuesday was some piece of power jewelry--$30,000 worth of gold and platinum. Better yet, the piece designed by Pomellato doubles as an award, which makes it de rigueur for any woman in this town who dares to call herself chic.

The lucky four who went home with that hunk of burning metal on Tuesday were popular girls: Anjelica Huston, Susan Sarandon, Meg Ryan and Amy Pascal. The lunch was a kissy-fest of women thanking women for helping women--and wondering why they still need to be segregated into their own lunch bunch.

The reason is so we can dish, girls. Columbia chief Pascal did her part by ratting on her former male superiors when she was a secretary at CAA.

“One of my jobs was to track down pretty girls the bosses saw around town. They would take down license numbers and we were supposed to make friends with someone at DMV.”

Now, boys, behave. Anyway, Ryan out-dished everyone by dishing herself. Adorably, we might add. (Kudos, Carrie Fisher, for ghostwriting par excellence.) We learned the downside to being too damn cute. Apart from being so sweet, Ryan has been known to cause diabetes, “There is a pall of cuddliness that will follow you all the way through menopause.”

Then there was a lot of stuff we can’t print in a family newspaper. From Meg’s mouth. Trust us.

Irene Lacher’s Out & About column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Page 2.