Strange Bedfellows: Winona and the Chicago 7

And if they get a conviction?

Caddell snorts. "It won't happen."

--Greg Goldin

IS THIS IT?: Out with the Hollywood that tries to succeed

IT'S 9:30 P.M., WEDNESDAY NIGHT and 21-year-old Jason Krause is playing Nintendo at the Strokes/Gamecube party at 6777 Hollywood Blvd., right next door to Snow White's Coffee Shop and the Hollywood Wax Museum.

"I'm a production assistant," says Jason. He wears a turquoise-and-white striped polo-style shirt, baseball cap and three almost fashionably placed pimples around the lower left-hand side of his mouth.

Around the corner, on Las Palmas, Christina Aguilera and her entourage of 10 are waiting in a black SUV. They've been there 20 minutes. The fire marshal isn't letting anyone else in -- not even Aguilera.

A surly publicist can't take it anymore. "I brought talent, I brought the Rolling Stonephotographer. They're inside and I'm out here," she says to a young woman with a headset. "I'm trying to work with you guys to put on these events, but . . ."

"There's nothing I can do," explains the blond Nintendo rep. "I have celebrities waiting. Christina Aguilera is waiting."

Jason, how did you get in here tonight?

"I go to all the parties in L.A.," he says, maneuvering his "wavebird," the wireless remote that controls an animated boxer on one of 10 large screens in front of him.

Yeah, but tonight, how did you get in?

"I walked through the door. The door guys know me."

Did you get here early or something?

"Around 8:30."

Back outside, a sallow, raccoon-eyed Eddie Furlong prepares to "walk the carpet" with his date, who explains their additional guest is "his publicist's assistant. His publicist is out of town."

Soon, the T2 bad boy finds himself waiting, cigarette dangling from his lips, for 20 minutes by the door to get in, along with former Baywatcher Traci Bingham.

Inside, Jason's having fun. The N.Y. transplant, who "rolled solo" tonight, moved to L.A. a year and a half ago to study acting at CalArts, but soon dropped out. "I never tell people about that," he says about his former creative interest. Since then, he's worked at Gemini G.E.L. on Melrose ("Good people," he says of his former bosses) and is now working on the Disney re-make of the Jodie Foster/Barbara Harris '70s gem Freaky Friday, this time starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Do you work as an office P.A. or on set?

"Both," says Jason, who carries his on-set ID badge in his pocket and "never really listened to the Strokes" before. "I don't want to be a P.A. I don't want to make movies."

What do you want to do?

"A&R."

Jason, who resembles actor/musician/Coppola cousin Jason Schwartzman, has actually been doing some informal scouting for one of the major labels. "It's been going pretty good," he says, but is reluctant to mention any names.

Eddie and Christina are finally inside, along with Leo DiCaprio, Kelly Osbourne, Paris Hilton, Shannen Doherty, Thora Birch, Donovan Leitch, Sean Patrick Flanery, Alicia Silverstone, Amanda De Cadenet and Fred Savage, all of whom are currently pressed against the stage to hear the last of the band's five songs. A characteristically greasy Julian Casablancas, in tattered jeans and a deconstructed overcoat, swings from the microphone, silently mouthing to himself "fuck you" between verses.

After the show, the crowd temporarily thins. Jason's gonna stick around. "There's nothing else going on tonight," he says, explaining that he lives so close he walked.

What about Pharmacy at Ivar?

"Boycott Bolthouse," says Jason haughtily about CoffeeHouse owner Brent Bolthouse, who promotes a weekly party at the new hotspot up the street. "I don't go to his parties."

A posse of male models who do go to Brent's parties cut out to do just that, cell phones in hand. Thora Birch is gonna stick around as well. Like Jason, the Ghost Worldactress came alone. "But I always see friends whenever I go out," she explains, surveying the room in a tight, red plaid schoolgirl mini. "It's been nice," she says, nursing a drink. "It's the expected crowd, I suppose."

How would you describe this crowd?

"Hollywood, East Hollywood, as in the actual city."

Hollywood proper?

"Yeah, sure, if that's what you want to call it. The Hollywood that's trying to succeed, I guess."

A leather-clad Michelle Rodriguez and her date, Colin Farrell, just arrived and have beelined to the bar. When asked if she missed the band, the Blue Crushactress crinkles her nose and says, "Oops!" Does she care? Apparently not. Passing Farrell a drink, Rodriquez adds, "I'm a huge video-game fan."

Some time later, Jason walks down a now-vacant red carpet to say goodbye to his doormen friends. A few feet behind him an energetic Eddie Furlong bounces through the traffic cones, arms in the air, dodging cars. A motorcycle cop is annoyed.

--Seven McDonald

L.A. MANNERS: No Laughing Matter

THE GETTY IS NOT YOUR CORNER movie house. Seeing a film there requires advance call-in booking, $5 parking reservations, plus a tram ride up the hilltop. And you better get there early if you want to get a good seat. Serious moviegoers come to the Getty -- or at least that's what I thought when I bought a ticket to watch Douglas Sirk's 1954 classic Magnificent Obsession.