HBO plants 'Garden' at Ziegfeld

'Grey' screens in Gotham

By LIZ SMITH

“THINGS TEND to accumulate after Labor Day!”

That line, uttered by Drew Barrymore in HBO’s “Grey Gardens” (as Edie Beale, facing down the East Hampton health department) drew one of the big laughs of the night, at the Ziegfeld Theater premiere Tuesday. But this was no isolated incident of audience participation.

You tend to get moviehouse applause during musicals; rarely throughout a more-or-less serious film. There is much that is funny in “Grey Gardens,” along with its tragic tale of two lost souls. Over and over again, Barrymore in what is surely the performance of her career, and Jessica Lange as Edie’s mother, were lauded, vocally, in the packed theater. Lange has one bit of business as the aged and infirm Edith, singing, and combing out her straggly gray hair, that elicited a commotion, including shouts of “brava, brava!” It was like a night at the opera, without the corsets.

Lange and Barrymore (the latter all decked out like a sexy 1930s debutante) were on hand in person. Both are reasonably down-to-earth women, and have enjoyed long careers. Still, it had to have been a thrill -- all this intense appreciation.

I wrote the other day how terrific “Grey Gardens” is. So, I’ll tell you again, urging you not to miss this masterpiece when it airs Saturday at 8 p.m.

The party after was held at the Pierre, and despite a brutal chill and miserable downpour, the place was jammed. You knew right away it was going to be fun -- they were playing the sounds of Billie Holiday. Somebody had class!

Sights and sounds included Bravo’s big man, the charming Andy Cohen, who took it very cheerfully when he was told, “please don’t be offended, but I hate reality TV.” (Andy is responsible for those “Real Housewives” shows, among others.) He said, “That’s OK. You’re not alone. What about Eric McCormack? He wrote a furious letter to Emmy magazine because the Housewives were on the cover. Look, I get it. But... people want it, right now. I don’t have horns and a tail, honest!”

Deborah Harry was there, looking -- I kid you not -- 25 years old. The last time I saw Debbie, she looked 35. Best thing? She looks just like herself, still. Whatever she’s done/is doing, it has not altered that face. Debbie was a bit frazzled, as she’d just lost her cell phone. Return an icon’s cell and get a big juicy kiss. (OK, Debbie made no such promise, but a little peck on the cheek, for sure.) And, yes, she’ll be back in the studio soon, making music.

Talk of cell phones, e-mails and computers led producer Wendy Finerman to tell of a new device that makes one think, and think again, before you press Send.(Perhaps a flashing red light and a siren screaming, “Think, you idiot!”) Finerman and Stanley Tucci (hands down the sexiest man in the room) exchanged horror stories of forwarding emails one never intended the recipient to see. Everybody waxed nostalgic over...faxes! “Yes!” said Stanley, “remember the wonder of faxes. How great and immediate it seemed. Now, with everybody on their cell, you get bad news instantly, and so much sooner than you want. At least with faxes there was still a bit of anticipation, you know, waiting for the paper to slowly spit out!”

When somebody at the table piped up that he did not even own a cell phone, the table fell quiet. But Steve Buscemi reached over, shook the guy’s hand and said, “Congratulations and don’t back down.”

THE DIVINE Jeanne Tripplehorn, my favorite “Big Love” wife, plays Jackie Kennedy Onassis in “Grey Gardens.” She was there, ravishing in a one-shoulder black and white number. Her skin is flawless, and she looks better now than when she took the rap for Sharon Stone’s ice-pick killer in “Basic Instinct” way back in 1991.

So, what was it like, playing the most famous woman in the world -- ever? “Daunting! Probably the most daunting thing I’ve ever done. And it was only one scene. And, the voice, getting her voice down.” (Jackie’s famous over-enunciated baby-soft cadences, always such a surprise coming from that dark beauty -- and how much she sounded like Marilyn Monroe.)

Jeanne was heading back to Hollywood, to begin filming the fourth season of “Big Love.” That role, one of Bill Paxton’s many Mormon wives, is also a challenge to Jeanne. “It’s hard. I find it hard to watch. You want to find something to connect to. And it’s difficult. If people 30 years old jumped into polygamy, and that was their decision, OK. But it involves very young girls with no choice.” Tripplehorn gave a little shudder and hugged herself.

She continued, “You know, I don’t like dark material. I really don’t -- funny that I started out in ‘Basic Instinct.’” But then I made a decision to do “The Firm” with Tom Cruise, so, you know, people could see I could play a regular woman.” When somebody said to Jeanne, “Your character in ‘The Firm’ was rather unforgiving. Tom strayed once, and you threw him out.”

Jeanne smiled, “Yes. And that’s just like me, honey. No second chances.” Still, however much Jeanne fears her dark side, she will expose it in “Morning” directed by her husband, Leland Orser. “Only he could get me there. Otherwise, I’d rather keep it light. Love makes you do... dark things!” (This movie also stars Laura Linney, Kyle Chandler and Jason Ritter, son of the late John Ritter.)

Finally, as the Pierre emptied out -- with almost everybody carting off the heavy floral centerpieces -- one person quipped, “Look, for a whole generation of gay boys who did not grow up loving Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,’ ‘Grey Gardens’ will be their camp touchstone.”

“Grey Gardens” is way more than that, but, sure ... it’ll be that, too.