Simon Says It’s a Party

Simon Says It’s a Party

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Camryn Manheim was walking through the back entrance to the W hotel in Westwood, en route to an after-party for the old-and-new Neil Simon play Wednesday night. Peering into the main lobby (the party was at the back), she was stopped by a bouncer, who told her she couldn’t come in carrying a glass of wine. “They’re segregating us,� she complained to her companion. “They don’t [like] those theater people.�

But the theater people inside, who had just attended the premiere of “Oscar and Felix--a New Look at the Odd Couple� at the Geffen Playhouse, were plenty friendly.

Seated on a couch was Neil Simon, 74, who, with director Peter Bonerz, had updated the 1965 classic.

Simon so enjoyed working in L.A., he said, that he’s planning to do another play here sometime next year. On Broadway, money distorts everything, Simon said. “There’s so much pressure to have a mega-hit. Not here. You just want to do something good.�

Everyone was a little star-struck.

“He appeared in my life when I needed some light,� said Maria Conchita Alonso, who stars in the play. “He’s an angel.�

“To work with Neil Simon, one on one,� Bonerz said, “it’s quite extraordinary.� After rehearsals, the playwright had given him a personal note, typed on his Remington typewriter. Bonerz was planning to find a 24-hour framing store on his way home. “If there’s a show business heaven,� he said, “it’d be the pass to get in.�

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Shot Films That Make Big Ripples

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Moomba in West Hollywood, best known for its high celebrity quotient, has been drawing a decidedly different midweek crowd over the last six months. Every Wednesday night around 10, a group of 20- to 30-somethings, many in T-shirts and jeans, head downstairs to a room of plush mattresses and couches.The red felt pool table is pushed aside, the funk music silenced, and a series of film shorts plays on the screen at the front of the room.

Recent Pepperdine University MBA grad and film producer Pernilla Nelson started the screenings, dubbed the Short Film Forum, to showcase new talent and provide an alternative to the festival circuit. Now the regulars range from students to established filmmakers looking for distributors.

“It is not the trendy club crew,� said Nelson, 30. “The only thing trendy is the place and location. There’s no guest list. It’s free.� But the screenings have attracted notice, and visibility for some of the filmmakers.

Director Christopher Olness, 28, screened a film about a young boy who faces his fear of water after witnessing his brother’s drowning. The 20-minute short, “Learning to Swim,� was picked up by Showtime, and Olness credits the Moomba screening with helping him get his film out there, “especially when it is so hard to get people to see your work in this town.�

Anyone is welcome to drop by with a VHS or DVD, and by the end of this month, budding filmmakers may also e-mail the material to [email protected]. Nelson makes selections from the submissions with Mike Deenie, an independent film director who hopped on board about four months ago to help organize the series.

On one recent night, the audience viewed “Eyeball Eddie,� a comedy that stars “Smallville’s� Lex Luthor Michael Rosenbaum as the opponent of a wrestler who wins matches by spooking opponents with his glass eye. On another night, actor Eddie Kaye Thomas (“American Pie�) screened a short film he directed about two brothers who are DJs. In the audience was actor Ron Perlman (“Blade II�) who dropped by to support the new filmmakers.

The film festival circuit has also gotten wind of the Wednesday night event. Folks at Nodance in Park City, Utah, turned to Nelson to hold a local screening of their work, and last month, Moomba hosted an evening of the best Nodance shorts from the last five years. In July, Nelson and Deenie will do the same for Slamdance.

Moomba, in turn, will send its best work to the Silver Lake Film Festival.

No one at the screenings seems to mind the sounds of cocktail chatter from upstairs or the occasional crash of a beer bottle because, as Deenie puts it, “it is a warm atmosphere, like a living room.� Except, of course, for the bartender, the waitresses and the unnaturally high ratio of directors-actors-producers.

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Times staff writer Kwala Mandel contributed to this column. City of Angles runs Tuesday and Friday. E-mail: [email protected]