It was a tale of two screenings Tuesday night in Manhattan. Fans of the stoner action caper, a burgeoning genre to be sure, hotfooted it over to AMC Loews Cinema to catch a Columbia Pictures-hosted sneak peak of Pineapple Express, Seth Rogen's new comedy of errors about two bumbling potheads caught up in a murder scandal. Preferring steam to bong smoke, cinephiles like Donna Karan and Calvin Klein turned up at the Tribeca Grand for the Cinema Society's screening of Elegy, an erotically charged May-December romance starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz. The film left Dennis Hopper hot and bothered. "Penélope's like a young Sophia Loren," he said. "But she's an even better actress." Meanwhile, a bromance was blossoming back at the Pineapple Express after-party at Tenjune. "I loved everything about the film, but if I had to pick my favorite part I'd say it was James Franco," said SNL's Jason Sudeikis. "Anybody with a bone structure and a set of teeth like that is hard to resist." Franco was hardly the only pretty face in the crowd. Spotted making a beeline for the famous-people-only section were Ed Norton, Rosie Perez, and Rumer Willis. There, guests sipped theme-appropriate cocktails (vodka and pineapple juice) and engaged in theme-appropriate small talk (the merits of legalizing marijuana). So how would America be different if we could pass the dutchie on the right-hand side…of the law? "Poor innocent guys like our characters in the film wouldn't be chased by drug lords," said Franco. "In a word," concluded Seth Meyers, "better."

— Katie Hintz (Elegy) and Evelyn Crowley (Pineapple Express)