Pizza and a movie, all grown up

Rosenthal is an investor in Mozza, which explains how he can finagle restaurant cook Gustavo Canseco into making the food for the movie nights.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Canseco slips a fresh pie into the home’s wood-burning oven.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

While Rosenthal, center left in the dark shirt, chats with a guest, Canseco composes his pizzas using a huge palette of ingredients: squash blossoms, pineapple, prosciutto, Taleggio and mozzarella — for starters. E-mail invitations go out to about 50 people, and the first 25 who RSVP are in.

Tonight’s crowd includes director Jake Kasdan, whose film “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” will be shown after dinner, and actors Valerie Harper and Tom McGowan, who quips, “I come to find out what parts I didn’t get auditions for.”  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

A party favorite: rapini, cherry tomatoes, olives, anchovies, Parmesan and chili paste.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Valerie Harper’s husband, producer Tony Cacciotti, sums up the scene: “It’s like high school but instead of watching TV and eating lousy pizza, you have a great screening room with comfortable seats and the best pizza in town.”  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

“Walk Hard” music supervisor Manish Raval, right, kicks back with wife Sage, an artist and art teacher to Rosenthal’s daughter.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

The Ravals scoop popcorn from an old-fashioned cart outside the screening room.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

At showtime, guests take their seats in the stadium-style screening room. “It’s the culmination of something I’ve been doing for 25 years,” Rosenthal says. “I’m the luckiest man alive.”  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)