Get ready to hear more about Prima Cinema Inc. in the coming months. Per an article in the LA Times by Daniel Miller, the company’s product costs around $35,000 plus another $500-600 per stream, plugs into expensive home-theater set-ups and allows the lucky homeowners to access select first-run Hollywood titles the same weekend the movies arrive in theaters.

From Miller’s article:

The Schultzes are not members of the exclusive “Bel-Air circuit”… Instead, these Rancho Santa Fe film fans, who also own a West Hollywood condominium they bought from actor Matthew Perry, are willing to pay a premium to screen movies as the Hollywood moguls do.

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There was a one-of-a-kind cinematic event on Saturday in San Francisco. Following a screening at the Roxie theater of the 1974 classic Chinatown, director Roman Polanski beamed onto the screen via Skype (at around 11:30 p.m. Paris time) for a Q&A with producer Thom Mount, with whom he collaborated on several subsequent film projects.

Freelance writer Pam Grady notes in her weekend coverage that Polanski bristled at Mount’s suggestion the the LA featured in the film was make-believe. “That LA existed,” he said. “We were trying to be historically correct. Bob [Robert Evans] loves the city of Los Angeles and he was inspired by it.”

Meanwhile, today, SF Weekly fellow attendee Casey Burchby highlights an infamous exception to Polanski’s smooth-sailing leading lady experiences:

Mount observed that Polanski’s career has been marked by outstanding performances by actresses: Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion, Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby, Nastassja Kinski in Tess — and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown. Polanski said that in each case, he’d enjoyed good working relationships with those women, with the exception of Dunaway.

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It’s been roughly five years since famed attorney Robert Shapiro gave his last sit-down interview. He chose to do another with the LA Business Journal‘s Alfred Lee, mainly because he wants to let people know that his focus is now on civil cases rather than criminal.

One big reason Shapiro says he has tended away from interviews is the ongoing barrage of questions he still receivers about the O.J. Simpson case. The 68-year-old Century City titan addresses his work on that case and that of Christian Brando, talks very candidly about the death of one son from a drug overdose, and retraces the origins of some advice given to him during the OJ trial by actor Jack Nicholson – “speak low and speak slow”:

Jack is more of a social acquaintance. I represented [film producer] Robert Evans for years and was involved doing a lot of civil work for him and in trying to put together a movie called The Two Jakes.

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In a town that worships movies, Nora Dashwood (pictured) has it pretty good. As Chief Brand Officer of ArcLight Cinemas, she gets to peddle the best moviegoing experience this side of Robert Evans‘ Bel Air circuit screening room.

The fourth quadrant of Dashwood’s empire, ArcLight Beach Cities, officially opens next Friday, November 5th at El Segundo’s Continental Park, a sprawling retail-entertainment complex featuring five hotels, four shopping centers and various restaurants. The company has essentially gone in and gutted one of its own properties, but the name “The ArcLight Formerly Known as the Pacific Beach Cities All-Stadium 16” didn’t quite have the same ring to it.

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