Quick! They’re running out of air

WHERE there’s smoke, there’s Jack Bauer. Hollywood’s Les Deux, with its charming private patio, would have been perfect for the Fox “24” Season 5 DVD launch party Dec. 4. Except for a deadly mixture: cigar fumes and a plastic tent that created a mushroom cloud of secondhand smoke. More than 150 stogies were lighted in the first hour, turning the fete into a “24”-esque thriller: 1. Nervous suits with headsets watched Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) embrace Audrey Raines (Kim Raver). 2. Villain Morris O’Brian (Carlo Rota) hides out in the fumes. 3. Martha Logan (Jean Smart) smiles for photos with President Logan (Greg Itzin). Bauer is whisked to a safe zone -- a reserved corner table. Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) explains that she’s used to death threats. “Every other day I think my character is going to get killed off. But I’m in almost every episode of the new season.” Sure. That’s what they tell everyone they kill.

-- Elizabeth Snead