A Crowded Red Carpet

After months of relentless hype, director Steven Soderbergh’s casino heist remake “Ocean’s Eleven” premiered to an all-star audience in Westwood on Wednesday night, the cast’s first stop on a world tour to promote the film.

The red carpet was so crowded with famous faces that publicists distributed a tip sheet to reporters with the names and thumbnail photos of each cast member. Fortunately, we recognized George Clooney despite his uncharacteristically gray hair (a longish coiffure for his next role as a 1970s CIA agent in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” a film he will direct). We also spotted Brad Pitt, minus wife Jennifer Aniston. It’s likely both men arrived unencumbered by dates because they were scheduled to leave town after the premiere and fly to Turkey to visit U.S. troops. After that, they’ll promote “Eleven” in London and Rome.

Soderbergh and a newly blond Julia Roberts breezed past scores of reporters on the red carpet without stopping. But the film’s co-stars--Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Elliott Gould, Andy Garcia, Carl Reiner and Casey Affleck--stopped long enough to tell us they gave Soderbergh high marks for creating an easygoing atmosphere on the set. “We were all just hanging out and having a blast,” said Pitt.

“I golfed about as much as I filmed,” Cheadle told us. “I felt guilty making money. I cashed the checks. But I felt guilty.”

Clooney, the self-appointed ringleader during the shoot, put it bluntly: “This is the kind of film that if you don’t enjoy yourself

After the movie, guests walked from Mann’s Village Theater to a giant tent erected on top of a parking garage across the street. Inside, the music of Frank Sinatra beckoned visitors to a buffet of steak and lobster tails. People sipped martinis on white leather couches and played video games. As Ethan Hawke greeted friends in one corner, and Shannen Doherty searched the room for familiar faces in another, we asked one guest what he thought of the film. “It’s a romp,” he said with a shrug. “A romp that’ll make millions.”

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Poison Pen

TV producers Mark Brazill and Judd Apatow titillated Hollywood this week with a nasty e-mail exchange that had better distribution than a Michael Bay movie, and more compelling writing than just about any show on TV.

On Wednesday, both camps tried to exercise damage control after the spat became public. Brazill offered an apology to Apatow, and told us through a spokesperson: “I sent it. I regret it. And I have apologized to Judd.” Apatow tried to downplay the incident by saying through his representative: “I can think of nothing less important in the world than this.”

Apatow is creator of “Undeclared,” which follows Brazill’s “That ‘70s Show” Tuesdays on Fox. The fight began after Apatow tried to arrange for Topher Grace, who plays Eric on “That ‘70s Show,” to make a guest appearance on “Undeclared.”

Getting no response from Brazill, Apatow e-mailed, wondering if something was wrong.

“I had a pilot at MTV called ‘Yard Dogs’ about a rock band living in Hollywood,” responded Brazill. “I told you about it and you proceeded to completely rip it off, story line and all, for the Ben Stiller show.... There’s a saying, ‘I forgive but I don’t forget. And I don’t forgive.’ So, now you know. Although I kind of think that you already did.”

Apatow answered: “I truly don’t remember anything you are talking about. Jeff Kahn wrote the ... sketch....Nobody watched our show so I don’t see how that could be the reason your pilot died. That sketch

But Brazill wasn’t feeling the holiday spirit: “Personally, I feel you’ve made a career out of being a sycophant to [Jim] Carrey or [Garry] Shandling or Roseanne and when you weren’t ... you were stealing from lesser known comics or leeching off other people’s ideas....I noticed how outraged you were to not get a writing credit on ‘Cable Guy’ until it came out and was panned. You dropped that cause like the showbiz weasel you are. You may not think you’re a thief but most comics know otherwise. And again, you know that too. Have you ever read ‘What Makes Sammy Run’? I think you’d like it. Get cancer. Love, Mark.”

And that was just the beginning. In a later e-mail, Brazill told Apatow to “die in a fiery accident and taste your own blood.”

We’ll have more excerpts from this battle of the network producers next week. Stay tuned.

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Ex-Double Charged

Robert De Niro’s onetime double Joseph Manuella was arraigned in a New York court last week on misdemeanor charges of impersonating the actor to get a discount rate on a hotel room.

However, police say they don’t have enough evidence to charge the New Jersey man for allegedly persuading a group of war veterans to build an elaborate “base camp” film set in a tiny New York farm community for a movie he didn’t complete.