'BLOW' GETS BEHIND-BARS SCREENING

Blow director Ted Demme and co-producer Denis Leary have a
screening lined up today for an audience of one: They're taking a
cassette to Otisville Federal Correctional Institute in Upstate New
York to show it to George Jung, whose life story is told in the movie,
opening Friday.

"Just me and George, and the warden and Denis," said Demme. He's now a
friend of Jung, 64, who takes credit for inventing the U.S. cocaine
market and Colombian connection in the late '70s and '80s.

Not an achievement to be proud of, but Leary said at a Manhattan
screening Tuesday, "It's an interesting take for our generation on the
idea of the American dream, and how badly it can go wrong when you try
to take the easy path."

Jung, from a working-class New England family, went from selling
marijuana on the beach in California to being the major U.S.
connection for Medellin drug chief Pablo Escobar. Jung, played in
another great character study by Johnny Depp, married a Colombian
woman (Penelope Cruz) and made major millions, but lost everything,
including contact with his beloved daughter when he went to prison on
drug convictions. He's up for parole in 2016.

Leary read Jung's story (in the Bruce Porter book of the same title)
when he was making The Ref for Demme in 1994, and he and Demme went to
see Jung in prison. Jung, said Leary, "is a very sympathetic,
charming, smart, affable guy. He's not an evil gangster, he's the kid
from next door, and I think that's the cautionary tale. All the glitz
and glamour and things that make people think they want (that life),
that's still the wrong path."

Paul Reubens co-stars in Blow, and says he's making "yet another big
comeback." Demme asked him to read, and he was eager to work with
Depp. His hairdresser character "is a big marijuana dealer who becomes
a coke dealer later on" and a partner with Jung. Does the former
Pee-wee Herman, 48, have drug experience he applied to the part? "Only
my Cheech and Chong movies."

At the screening: The Sopranos Drea DeMatteo, a fan of Depp's;
Sopranos' Steven van Zandt, who said Reubens is excellent; model Heidi
Klum; Kelly Ripa, Regis Philbin's sidekick, and hubby Mark Consuelos
(Ripa gave the movie a rave on Wednesday's show). Damon Dash, Jay Z's
partner at Roc-a-fella Records, also gave thumbs up.

Michael J. Fox, a Demme pal, was there, saying Depp's work was
"fantastic!" Fox looked good, and said he isn't discouraged by a
recent Parkinson's disease study using stem cells that had an adverse
effect on some patients. "It did work, it produced dopamine," but too
much, sadly, for some, he said. "But the thinking is they can tweak
(the treatment), so it's a positive step."

VIPs: Stefanie Powers guests Tuesday on Joan Cusack's new ABC show, What
About Joan. She'll play the mom of Joan's boyfriend, Jake (Kyle Chandler) . . .
Bill Clinton is said to be close to signing with a publisher for his book. . .
. Kitty Kelley is "deep in the Bushes" in research for her book on the first
family.