A Lot of Energy . . . and a Whole Lot of Leather

The Scene: Wednesday’s world premiere of Touchstone’s “Metro” at Mann’s Chinese. An expansive, neon-lit party followed at the Palladium. It came complete with an entire parimutuel betting operation--play money, nine horse races shown on a dozen monitors and a handicapping / odds guide. Movie logo-ed T-shirts went to the winners. It formed an exceptional social composite. There aren’t many premiere parties that congeal the ambience of off-track betting, a bar, a disco and the customary Hollywood schmoozathon.

Who Was There: The film’s star, Eddie Murphy; co-stars Michael Wincott, Carmen Ejogo and Art Evans; director Thomas Carter and producer Roger Birnbaum; among the 1,400 guests were Will Smith, Paul Sorvino, Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett, Jenifer Lewis and studio execs Michael Eisner, Joe Roth and Donald De Line.

Also Attending: Outside the theater, a line of under-20 ticket holders wrapped around the block. One organizer referred to them as “the demographics.” They’d been chosen for free tickets in the hope they’d “spike the energy” during the screening. Though the demographics don’t get the good seats, they do make significantly more noise during car chase / shootings than middle-aged guys.

Quoted: “I like testosterone films,” Murphy said. “They’re fun movies to go to. I came into the movie business doing films like this. The closest movie I’ve done to this is ’48 HRS.’ There’s a sense of danger, the bad guys are real, the situations are real, but at the same time there’s comedy infused.”

Dress Mode: More leather jackets than you’d see at the Tailhook convention. It was the “hoodlum chic” accessory du jour. They’re warm, macho, casual, status neutral and, best of all, expensive.

Entertainment: Cutting edge DJ Mike Messex played the tunes but couldn’t get the crowd to dance. He described the scene as “high profile, CEO party.” “They’re not here to dance to ‘Super Freak,’ ” the DJ said. “They came to shake hands.”

Overheard: A British writer surveyed the party and said: “Excess should be more hedonistic than this.”