Singin' the Stones with Dennis Quaid

"You can't make everyone happy," sighed the interior designer Barclay Butera last night as he helped host a celebratory bash for Michael London's production company Groundswell. "They still want a little L.A. in Park City."

Butera, who has furniture -- not movie -- studios, in L.A. and O.C. and a sizable chunk of retail and residential space in P.C., did his utmost to please. His imported Hollywood DJ Michael Smith blasted classic rock mash-ups that rattled the antler chandeliers in the showroom. Parmigiani, a luxury watch company based in Dana Point, displayed glass vitrines of their spend-y "collectible, complicated timepieces," as a spokesman described them.

Cast and crew from three Groundswell Sundance entries -- "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," "Smart People" and "The Visitor" -- along with a sizable contingent of CAA agents and clients started blowing in shortly after nine.

Actress Maria Bello was the first A-lister through the doors. She arrives at Sundance with three films: "Yellow Handkerchief" with William Hurt, "Towelhead" with Aaron Eckhart and the sexually provocative "Downloading Nancy."

"It's the furthest I've ever gone, the most intense, believe it or not," said the actress who famously had staircase sex with Viggo Mortensen in "A History of Violence."

She seemed even more jazzed to talk about her role in the forthcoming third chapter of "The Mummy," in which she and Brendan Fraser travel to China to take on Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li. Playing a "killer chick," Bello got to swing off chandeliers, sword fight, shoot Winchester rifles and do kung fu.
"I always wanted to be Indiana Jones," she confessed. "At 40, I finally got the chance to make my action movie dreams come true."

Sundance, she says, scratches other itches. "You know, the hype and swag can get a little overdone," she said. "But the truth is, you make so many friends when you are making independent films and it's great to run into them wherever you go at the festival."

It is reminiscent of the camaraderie of the pre-strike Golden Globes with one difference: "We're not celebrating the results," Bello remarked, "We're celebrating the process."

As for this particular celebration, Bello, said "It seemed like one of the more low-key events."

Tell that to Dennis Quaid. As other fashionable and highly elevated partygoers with Emily Blunt haircuts and Seth Rogan beards took advantage of the plentiful plush chairs and sofas in the Butera showroom, Quaid sang along lustily to a snippet of The Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction." He threw his arms around people's necks, including this reporter's, saying, "We're kicking up some dust."

Shortly before midnight, a parka-clad, chin-scruff sporting Thomas Haden Church departed, citing a full day ahead. He bypassed the coat check, where Quaid had manfully stepped into the chaotic cloakroom to retrieve the coats of his wife and friends.

"Give me your ticket," he said to one of the entourage. "I'm responsible for you."

In his condo, adjacent to the party space, Butera contemplated his own responsibilities. "I don't know what the showroom is going to look like after tonight," he said, "I'm going back to L.A. tomorrow."

--David A. Keeps

(Photo: Dennis Quaid meets fans on the street at Sundance, courtesy Getty Images)