Play It Again, Woody

It was standing room only at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City on Wednesday night, the second of two gigs that clarinetist Woody Allen performed with the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band. The seven-piece ensemble lit up the stage with Dixieland music, a genre featured in his upcoming film, “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” due in theaters Aug. 24.

Allen sat center stage with a serious look, rarely acknowledging the audience. He told us earlier in the week he has no illusions about his abilities. “I don’t say this with fake modesty: I’m the worst musician in the world. People come and see me ‘cause they know me from movies. If I had to make a living as a musician, I’d starve in two weeks’ time.” We beg to differ.

Diane Keaton was there in the second row, smiling up at the man who helped launch her career 24 years ago with “Annie Hall.” Rhea Perlman and Danny DeVito sat beside her. Jeffrey Katzenberg had a front-row seat. Also in the audience were Dom DeLuise, Elliott Gould, Elizabeth Berkley and David Ogden Stiers.

A Matter of Taste

We won’t hear Ben Affleck pitching Samuel Adams beer any time soon. Boston Beer Co. pulled national radio ads Wednesday that feature former Bostonians Affleck and Matt Damon accepting a Samuel Adams beer from company founder Jim Koch. Last Friday, Affleck checked himself in to Promises, a Malibu live-in rehab facility that is also treating Robert Downey Jr. and Paula Poundstone.

“The Boston Beer Co. respects Ben Affleck, his decision, and we wish him well,” Koch said in a written statement.

The 60-second ads were part of a series of tongue-in-cheek spots promoting the Academy Award-winning duo’s Project Greenlight, an online screenwriting contest backed by Miramax and HBO and sponsored in part by Samuel Adams. The ad opens with Koch offering Damon and Affleck a Sam Adams beer before they call Hollywood execs to pitch a script.

“In three weeks you may hear another Greenlight spot,” company spokeswoman Michelle Sullivan said. “But it won’t be the one featuring Ben, obviously.”

Crime Scribe of the Rich and Famous

Dominick Dunne has come full circle; he’s working in show biz again. The Vanity Fair scribe is hosting a mystery series on the USA Network, and a chapter of his latest book, “Justice: Crimes, Trials and Punishments,” will be an RKO Television movie.

At his Tuesday book party at L’Ermitage in Beverly Hills, Dunne had plenty to say about the LAPD investigation into the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley, actor Robert Blake’s wife.

The investigation “is getting colder and colder,” Dunne said. Police “have nothing to go on” since the bullets recovered from Bakley’s body don’t appear to match any of the guns police have tested.

U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, who was having an affair with missing intern Chandra Levy, “has lied from day one,” Dunne said. “I have nothing but disrespect for him. He’s a creep, this guy.”

Dunne says he’ll follow Condit’s “situation” and cover the trial of New York publicist Lizzie Grubman, who’s accused of deliberately mowing down patrons outside a Hamptons night spot after being asked to move her father’s Mercedes SUV from a fire lane.

“As you can see, I’m not attracted to street crime,” Dunne said. “I like rich people crime.”

The, Ahem, TruthIs Out There

Comedian Garry Shandling isn’t shy about sharing the bad bathroom decorum he witnessed in actor David Duchovny and Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal. In an interview with guest editor Craig Kilborn for the September issue of Gear magazine, Shandling said Duchovny “was waiting behind me at the urinal with his pants already down--a big no-no, even in Hollywood. And at Staples Center, 7-foot-1 O’Neal was next to me at the urinal and missed everything. But he’s very strong in close.”

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Ann O’Neill is on vacation. This column was written by Times staff writers Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug. City of Angles runs Tuesday-Friday. E-mail: angles@latimes.com.