Cool, but Won’t It Clash With the Couch?

Occasion: Opening of Hiro Yamagata’s “Solar System” installation at his Malibu studio.

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Beyond “Beyond Thunderdome”: “I thought we were going to a little gallery to see the guy’s work and talk about it over a cappuccino,” says comedian Tim Allen. Instead, Mr. Tool Time, who’s into “functional art, Lichtenstein, that whole era,” (who knew?) is caught in the throng meandering through this interlocking puzzle box of studios and staircases, studded with artist Hiro Yamagata’s latest conceptual pieces and some truly cornucopian buffet tables. Upstairs, across, and down again, is the main attraction--an oblong room with a Space-Mountain-on-a-Sunday line trailing out of it. The dazzling experience within is created by a multiplicity of computer-controlled twirling mirrored cubes spraying colored laser droplets while ambient light shifts randomly from soft hues to hot strobe. “My idea is that before you touch a paintbrush or a pencil, there are a million elements there,” says Yamagata. “The human eye can’t break color down but a laser can.” His studio doubles as a laboratory whose doors will be open by appointment to both the public and psychologists at UCLA, who, he says, “will bring depressed people in to see how their brains react.” Tonight the reactions come from the art-appreciation crowd. “Hiro, I can see your mind,” gushes Maria Shriver, a Yamagata friend. Pal Frank Gehry declares: “The guy keeps the humanistic, spiritual in the technological.” (So true, whatever it means.) And Shirley MacLaine stands transfixed in the fractal whirl for minutes before finally delivering a softly spoken, “Unbelievable.”

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The Critics Agree: When the greatest fanfare of the evening greets the limo carrying “Access Hollywood’s” Pat O’Brien, it’s a clue this isn’t autograph heaven. Still, Robert Stack and his wife, Rosemarie, come by. Stack compares Yamagata’s work to “the first time I saw Brando act. I didn’t know how he was doing what he was doing, but it was interesting.” Of course, this isn’t the kind of art to sail over anybody’s head. “Anything that hits me on, like, a visceral nerve level, I really like,” says Bob Saget, adding that “I threw myself in front of the lasers and got Lasik surgery on my eyes and prostate.” (That’ll be all, Bob. Thanks.) Tom Arnold, however, does grapple with Yamagata’s subtler pieces--a pair of geometric metallic rooms with spinning colored lights within. “Is that some kind of pyramid where the people have sex?” he asks, pointing to one. “I just saw Shirley MacLaine come out of there. I think I’ll wait.”

Whats the Score?

Celeb Quotient

Ahhnold, no; Bob Saget, yes.

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Wow Factor

A giant psychedelic turn-on--and everybody’s wearing black?

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Food

Ambrosia’s juxtaposition of sushi, roast meats, crostini, guacamole, desserts and full martini bar creates a sublime inter-play of food groups and beverage choices.