Slices of Hollywood Life

People settled into the velvety seats of the Skirball Cultural Center theater early, enjoying the cool, dark reprieve from the suffocating heat blanketing the hills outside. They arrived in sundresses and barbecue wear to hear Los Angeles writers read their stories and essays, several of which offered irreverent takes on Hollywood life.

Poet and novelist Carol Muske-Dukes took the stage first, warning the audience: “Please don’t cough.” (The late-afternoon performance--presented by L.A. Theatre Works and Spoken Interludes--was being recorded for radio broadcast on XM Satellite Radio and KPCC (89.3 FM). Her essay “Married to the Ice Pick Killer” was an excerpt from her upcoming book. Muske-Dukes, who was married for 17 years to actor David Dukes until his death in 2000, called acting the “proactive search for psychosis.” “Living with an actor is like living with someone who keeps getting kidnapped and longs to be kidnapped,” she read, describing her husband’s agonizing wait for roles followed by long shoots around the world away from home.

In “Magic Hour,” writer Erika Schickel explored the thoughts of an aspiring actress, so conflicted about her move to L.A. from N.Y. that she seeks comfort in the wares of her marijuana dealer. Unlike the young girls with blond ponytails that her N.Y. friends call “snacktresses,” Schickel’s character wants to be an “actor,” a title she prefers because it shows “seriousness of purpose in the craft.” Actress and writer Ann Magnuson performed “You Oughta Be in Pictures,” a story narrated by an actress bemoaning her career choice, which often seems like “an ongoing performance art project.” She’s weary of being typecast as the evil woman and feels conflicted about her breakout role in a big-budget Bruce Willis movie. “I just hate Bruce Willis, that Planet Hollywood, harmonica-sucking slime,” she read. “Of course, I’m not above being in a Bruce Willis movie....”

Fallen Heroes

“You look so much like Helen Hunt,” a woman was saying to playwright Anne Nelson after the gala premiere of Nelson’s “The Guys” at the Actors’ Gang in Hollywood on Saturday night. The play stars Hunt as a journalist who meets a New York fire captain, played by Tim Robbins, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, and helps him write eulogies for eight of his men lost in the destruction of the twin towers. Nelson, who slightly resembles the actress, smiled.

“The Guys” came about when a director, Jim Simpson, asked Nelson to convert her real-life experience helping a fire captain compose eulogies. It was first staged at the Flea Theatre in New York, with Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver. It continues indefinitely, with a cast change every three weeks, at the Actors’ Gang in Hollywood. The gala was attended by a host of celebrities, including Matthew Perry, Susan Sarandon, Philip Baker Hall, Dermot Mulroney, Diane Lane and Bryan Lourd.

Quote/Unquote

“The Rolling Stones made one good album, which was ‘Let It Bleed.’ But the rest of them, I just can’t sit through all that nonsense. They should just call it a day. I would like to say to them, ‘Have you got anything better to do?’ ” Oasis guitarist-songwriter Noel Gallagher in Maxim’s August issue.

Sightings:

Morrissey on Friday night at the Cat and Fiddle in Hollywood.... The Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas on crutches at Swingers diner near the Bev Cen on Sunday morning.... Emilio Estevez at Genghis Cohen on Fairfax on Friday night for an acoustic show by singer-songwriter Steve Bertrand.

City of Angles runs Tuesday and Friday. E-mail: angles@latimes.com.