So much for skipping the premiere because you're simply too cool.
Indie director
Julie Davis wanted a preem for her pic "I Love You Don't Touch Me" so much she made it happen herself.
MGM, which is releasing the pic Friday under its Goldwyn Films banner, refused to premiere the dark comedy because it was only opening in New York and L.A. on a few screens and didn't have any stars. (Pic was made for $60,000 and was a hit at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.)
Davis, who wrote, produced and directed the pic, just wanted to get dressed up: "For years, I've been dreaming of the dress I would wear to the premiere."
Hustling like a good indie producer should, Davis went out and booked L.A.'s Cineplex Odeon Showcase theater on La Brea Avenue to use for one screening in the first evening slot on Friday night.
The theater owners agreed as long as everyone paid $8. So Davis invited the cast and crew and 400 friends to attend as long as they each shelled out $8.
"It's huge for me and all the actors, for the director of photography and the production designer," says Davis. "We felt that if they're not going to do a premiere, we'll do our own."
An MGM spokeswoman had no comment on the preem -- which the studio preferred to call a "cast and crew screening" -- except to say, "We don't do premieres for all our films."
The pic opens on three screens in New York and five in L.A., and will be expanded in three weeks if it performs.
Premiere or not, no one seemed to know whether a red carpet would be stretched in front of the Showcase theater. Nor whether a party was planned. But everyone involved was eager to see which dream dress Davis would choose.
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