A Night In Austenland

(NEW YORK) Looking for a romantic comedy with smarts for a future summer date? Look no further than Sony Pictures Classics’ Austenland, which hits theatres on Friday. Last night, The Cinema Society and Alice + Olivia hosted a screening of the indie at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema for a crowd that included A+O’s Stacey Bendet (looking cuter than ever), Aleksa Palladino, Heather Matarazzo, Louisa Krause, Eve Plumb, Christian Campbell & America Olivo, Imogen Lloyd-Webber, Daniel Benedict, Alex and Keytt Lundqvist, Will Cotton, Alvin Valley, Langley Fox, Kelly Thomas, Kelly Bensimon, and a feisty Cindy Adams. (The 8 p.m. start time appeared to be a little past her bedtime.)  

Brought to you by the makers of Napoleon Dynamite and Twilight (together at last), the film stars Keri Russell as a single gal addicted to Jane Austen (you know the type?) looking for love in a place called Austenland. Think of it as a Dollywood for bookworms. With more twists and turns than an Austen novel, the film adapts Shannon Hale‘s 2007 chick-lit book of the same. After the screening, Cinema Society regs enjoyed a perfectly temperature-d night on the roof of The James Hotels’ Jimmy where the cast including Russell, JJ Feild, and the scene stealing Jennifer Coolidge sipped Qui cocktails aptly named The Jane Austen and Mr. Darcy and partied like it was 1812.