A simple goal: enjoy a movie

Target Presents AFI Night at the Movies on Wednesday was hinged on a simple concept that isn't attempted enough at the red-carpet hullabaloos so intrinsic to Hollywood: Screen an iconic movie, introduced by the starring actor, at the snazzy ArcLight. Throw in some popcorn, soda and -- voila! It's a Hollywood mega-event with the timeless appeal of escaping real life for a couple of hours. No ponderous panel discussions to muck things up.

Last year, AFI's 40th anniversary event brought together 10 actors, including Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Julie Andrews and Warren Beatty, to wax rhapsodic about their classic films. This year, the ante was perhaps upped with a few actors who qualify as bona fide US Weekly bait. When tickets, at $25 apiece, were put up for sale, all 12 screenings sold out in a matter of hours.

"It's like a fireworks show of American films," AFI President and Chief Executive Bob Gazzale said. "It's to bring together the actors and the audience, period. It's not about what you're wearing, it's not about your new DVD, it's about the joy of going to the movies."

This year's roll call was formidable: Annette Bening, Jim Carrey, Sean Connery, Cameron Diaz, Jodie Foster, Dustin Hoffman, Shirley MacLaine, Steve Martin, Rita Moreno, Mike Myers, Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington.

Actors, they'll have you know, are a funny bunch. And never do they want to top one another more than when there's an audience hanging on their every word. Even if that audience is their inverse, otherwise known as the media -- TV personalities, photographers and a few print dinosaurs -- smoothing their own hair for the camera and arguing over pieces of tape on the floor.

They were assembled in a quarter-filled theater to watch the actors take their "class" photo before they jetted off to different screening rooms to introduce their movies.

But first, let the comedy roll, inspired by the unspoken theme of "this is weird, isn't it?"

Martin mock-stumbled to his place on the risers and pointed down. "The tape is so high!" he cried.

"We all came out to the sound of applause," Hoffman said morosely, "but we can't even fill three rows." Beatty, sitting in the audience, guffawed.

"Are we allowed to touch each other?" Diaz asked. She stood next to MacLaine, dressed in gauzy lettuce green, who gave Diaz a warm hug.