All Quiet on Western Front of ‘Dogma’

The Los Angeles premiere of Kevin Smith’s controversial comedy “Dogma” could hardly have been more different than the movie’s East Coast premiere at the New York Film Festival.

In New York, Smith and the film’s stars were ushered into Lincoln Center under the watch of tense security guards with every effort being made to keep the principals away from the droves of sign- and crucifix-wielding picketers. (The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is protesting the Lions Gate film, which its leaders believe to be anti-Catholic.)

On Tuesday night in L.A., harried publicists ushered the cast into the 350-seat Harmony Gold Theater, only worried that the screening might not start on time, while writer-director Smith stopped to sign autographs and chat with his fans on Sunset Boulevard, most of whom looked as if they could be characters from the director’s first film, “Clerks.”

At the after-party at Dominick’s, the retro-swank Beverly Boulevard eatery, guests--who included the film’s Ben Affleck, Alanis Morissette, Salma Hayek and Jason Lee--favored the restaurant’s outdoor patio. The overflow spilled over to Guy’s, a nightspot adjacent to Dominick’s. Most noticeably absent? Matt Damon, who plays one of the exiled angels, who is on location in Savannah, Ga., shooting the DreamWorks picture “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”

Bob and Harvey Weinstein kept a low profile at a back banquette, letting Lions Gate Films co-presidents Mark Erman and Tom Ortenberg work the crowd. (The Weinsteins bought the rights to the film back from their own studio, Miramax, at the height of the Catholic League controversy to avoid embarrassment for parent company Disney, and then sold the domestic distribution rights to Lions Gate.)

Other guests included a not immediately recognizable (she’s now a brunet), chain-smoking Gwyneth Paltrow--who, for the record, was not “with” ex-beau Affleck--and Ed Norton, who escorted Hayek.

At the end of the evening Smith, exhausted from endless interviews and weeks of travel, said, “I just want to go home and not talk about ‘Dogma’ anymore.”