IF TERMINATOR 2 FAILS TO ICE THE COMPETITION at the box office this summer, it still may be long remembered in the catering industry. To toast last week's opening of the $90 million-or-so Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick (reportedly the costliest U.S. movie ever made), Carolco and Tri-Star flexed their budgetary biceps and threw in $450,000 for the party.
Guests at the Century City premiere—including Billy Crystal, Debbie Allen, Whoopi Goldberg and 1,800 others—first witnessed two-plus hours of cinematic mayhem ("a solid run of energy," praised Jim Belushi), then walked a block and a half on rolled-out red carpet to an outdoor, black Astro Turfed set behind the Century Plaza Hotel. There they were outfitted with T2 sunglasses (the better to conjure Arnie-esque Attitude, of course) and treated to disco music while waiters set out drinks and food, and Terminator-garbed extras scurried over scaffolding brandishing facsimile machine guns. Has Schwarzenegger succeeded with his sequel? "I don't know that I've seen car chases or destruction on such a scale in my whole life," proclaimed Dudley Moore. Too much, perhaps? "There was a lot of movie up there," noted Murphy Brown's Joe Regalbuto diplomatically, adding with a smile, "I really think, though, that they probably could have done just as good a job spending only $80 million."
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