The Great Life

"X-Files"-philiacs know not to ask too many questions about the plot, and merely float along with FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), although one observer added after Fox's premiere of the $65 million "The X-Files" feature that it might even be more fun if you watch the movie when you're a tad tipsy. In the film, Scully and Mulder experience living hell, tracking down endless conspiracies surrounding the aliens, who are determined to destroy mankind. Directed by Rob Bowman from a screenplay by executive producer Chris Carter, who created Fox's award-winning series now in its fifth season, the film includes such series regulars as Mitch Pileggi (the FBI Assistant Director), William B. Davis (The Cigarette-Smoking Man), John Neville (The Well-Manicured Man), and those conspiracy buffs, Dean Haglund, Tom Braidwood and Bruce Harwood (The Lone Gunmen). Composer Mark Snow's music underscores Rob Bowman's riveting sci-fi suspense, and after the premiere at Mann's Village Theatre, Fox's Flo Grace and Len Iannelli organized a fannybumper for 1,500 guests at the Santa Monica Airport hangar, with lavish buffets catered by Patina and the Grill. Here and there were Tea Leoni with husband David Duchovny, the film's Armin Mueller-Stahl, author Sidney Sheldon, Emilio Estevez, Minnie Driver, Sydney Pollack, Kelly Preston, Christina Applegate, Dweezel Zappa, Melissa Etheridge with Julie Cypher, Luke Perry, Mark Hamill, WMA's Peter Levine and Michelle Stern, who represent Gillian Anderson -- they praise her performance in the upcoming "The Mighty" with Sharon Stone and inform that Gillian's currently filming "Dancing About Architecture" with Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie. Martin Short, now filming Larry Kasdan's "Mumford" in Sonoma," talked about starring in "Little Me" on Broadway this fall, and Jennifer Tilly appeared smartly retro in an Emilio Pucci printed sheath belonging to Marlene Dietrich that Jennifer snapped up during the Dietrich auction. "I also bought two Hemingway letters to Dietrich ... they're like little short stories ... since the market was down at the time, the dress was a buy and I was able to bid for the letters, which were only $5,000 each."



That golden boy of hoteliers, New York's Andre Balazs, has opened his "coming-soonish" Mercer Hotel in SoHo, having bought the John Jacob Astor building in 1989 and Andre envisioning a downtown hotel with a minimalist-to-the-max decor for his hip pals. Andre, may we remind, also owns the Chateau Marmont, and Sam Holdsworth, who's raising financing for Andre, reveals they're planning to renovate the Golden Crest retirement home on Sunset Boulevard into a smart middle-priced hotel. Andre and his wife Katie Ford, who operates the topnotch Ford Modeling Agency, are among New York's most handsome couples, with two daughters Alessandra and Isabella, and the national press has enthusiastically embraced them with a blitzkrieg of features (thanks to p.r. whiz Nadine Johnson) in Travel & Leisure, Vogue, German Vogue, Wallpaper, the Herald-Tribune, which arrives nightly at every Mercer Hotel guest's door. Sometime "soonish," as Andre says, The Kitchen, under the aegis of chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, will open in the Mercer's lower level, and while booths are available there also will be community dining at "boarding house" style tables for single diners. Under the managerial eye of Klaus Ortlieb, formerly with the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Mercer offers 75 rooms plus a number of suites, along with an enormous top-floor accommodation that VH1's fashion commentator Jeanne Beker lodged in and describes as "heavenly." Nor should we overlook the luxurious bathrooms, with huge bathtubs that are an invitation to "party" in. The Mercer is at 147 Mercer St. Telephone: (212) 966-6060. FAX: (212) 965-3838.