Quick Cuts

“If it wasn’t for Miramax, I’d still be just white trash from North Carolina.”

--KEVIN WILLIAMSON

At the premiere party for his new ABC show “Wasteland.” Miramax released the Williamson-scripted films “Scream” and “Scream 2” and Williamson’s feature film directorial debut, “Teaching Mrs. Tingle.” “Wasteland” is the first show from Miramax’s new television arm. The party was at the Standard Hotel in West Hollywood on Sept. 23.

Buzz

Those who’ve seen early screenings of “Magnolia,” writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to his lauded 1997 “Boogie Nights,” are amazed by Tom Cruise’s performance as the smarmy, misogynistic leader of a men’s movement called Seduce and Destroy. The film is a slice-of-life look at a mixed-up group of denizens of the San Fernando Valley, and the cast includes “Boogie” alumni William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, Philip Baker Hall and Philip Seymour Hoffman. But it is Cruise, right, and his decidedly non-Tom-Cruise supporting character Frank T.J. Mackey that are the subjects of some early (we stress early) Oscar talk. New Line Cinema plans a Christmas release for the un-jolly film.

Cleaning Up

In David Fincher’s new drama “Fight Club” (which hits theaters Friday), Brad Pitt’s character, an underground fight promoter, sells soap by day. So as a promotional gag, 20th Century Fox sent out 500 bars of pink glycerine soap with the title of the film molded on top to members of the press and exhibitors. Now some of those bars have shown up on the popular auction Web site EBay, www.ebay.com, and the bars are selling for $30 to $40 apiece. The highest bid for a cake of “Fight Club” soap so far? Try $200, for an auction that closed Sept. 25.

Action!

“The Fellowship of the Ring: Lord of the Rings,” the first in Peter Jackson’s much anticipated film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels, begins filming this week in Jackson’s native New Zealand. The film, which will be released by New Line, stars Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood and Liv Tyler (as Queen of the Fairies).