TINSELTOWN SPYWITNESS.

Byline: Elizabeth Snead

'MATRIX' IN PLAY: ``Matrix'' maniacs were out in full force Tuesday night for the debut of the Enter the Matrix video game and the premiere of ``Final Flight of the Osiris,'' the ground-breaking CG animated short that is both a setup to the video game and a prelude to the new film, ``The Matrix Reloaded.''

The event, organized by Matrix makers Atari and Warner Home Video, was tip-top secret. Security guards asked for passports, driver's licenses, wristbands, badges and cardboard invites (miss one and you might not get in) before letting guests hop aboard a bus (call it the Geekwarts Express) from the Universal Hilton to the Steven J. Ross Theatre on the Warner Bros. lot.

Matrix mythmakers Andy and Larry Wachowski were missing, but producer Joel Silver introduced the ultimate fantasy in gaming - a video game with film footage and footage shot with the actors that is only seen in the game.

Seems that playing the game enhances the film, letting gamers in on stuff that isn't fully explained in the movie. But since the video hits stores the same day the film opens (May 15), one wonders what this marketing synchronicity will do to the opening weekend box office.

The after-party, featuring really loud rock music, hundreds of strangely attired folks and men in suits drinking bright green vodka cocktails and eating pasta, chicken, sushi, green tea ice cream  and fruit infused with Grand Marnier, was held in a nearby cavernous soundstage. Around 100 gaming screens were set up for folks to try. Also on hand: the actual game designers who have been working on the project for two years.

Natch, Neo himself, Keanu Reeves was lurking in the crowd. Shielded from reporters by his protective publicist, Reeves wore his prerequisite wool hat and usual sour ``I smell press'' expression. He was joined by co-stars Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss, Matrix video game stars Anthony Wong and Lachy Hulme, that nonstop party girl Paris Hilton, model-actor Donovan Leitch, Tommy Lee and Marilyn Manson, wearing a top hat and his Halloween haute couture.

``Spider-Man'' star Tobey Maguire wandered around holding hands with a very young, nonfamous brunette. But he was almost unrecognizable due to his drastic weight loss and short red hair, all for his role as a jockey in ``Seabiscuit.''

But Jada Pinkett Smith was the star of the night, arriving with husband Will Smith and their son. Wearing a sexy jeweled top with urban combat black pants, she was pretty psyched about becoming a game girl.

``I love video games,'' she bragged. ``My favorite is Resident Evil. But what I like about Enter the Matrix is that you have all these different environments that have different types of play - gunplay and combat. That, to me, is really cool.'' Apparently Will also thinks the game is cool. But for a different reason.

``Now he can get me to do whatever he wants me to do,'' Pinkett Smith said with a big smile. ``And it's the only place that will happen.''

BEST SUPPORTING ROLE: Julianne Moore, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Meryl Streep and Diane Lane may soon lead charmed lives.

When Oscar nominations are announced on Tuesday, all the best-actress nominees will get a polite knock on the door from Victoria's Secret. Seems VS has promised to hand-deliver a good luck charm in the form of a Very Sexy silk bra and panty set with a heart-shaped charm dangling from the bra featuring the actress's initials and two radian-cut diamonds.

The gals also get white gold charm bracelets for those days (or nights) when they tire of hiding their lucky charms under all that tiresome designer clothing. The total value of the charm? A mere $5,000. Sheesh. Who cares about that darn gold statue! You can't wear that!

ENVIRONMENTAL SATISFACTION: It was billed as a free concert to fight global warming at the Staples Center Thursday night.

But before the Rolling Stones music began, there was awareness-raising. The Stones were introduced by former president Bill Clinton who joked, ``Why is a white-haired, 56-year-old former politician on this stage? Because the Stones' term is unlimited - and they're just as old as I am.''

Clinton thanked the Stones, the 1 million National Resources Defense Council members and Steve Bing (whom you may recall disputed the paternity of Elizabeth Hurley's baby) for making the night happen. Then he did his bit to fight global warming.

``If global warming continues as it has over the next 10 years, we will lose 50 feet of Manhattan Island to flooding, where I work every day. We will lose islands, huge amounts of farmland and create millions of food refugees and angry young people and more problems and terrorism and other things all because we refused to stop the planet from burning up.''

Clinton sang the praises of California's energy conservation. ``Californians use less energy per person than any other other state in the country!'' The crowd went completely wild, unaware that they were so gosh darn socially conscious. Who knew?

Afterward, Mick Jagger remarked to the crowd, ``We've had a lot of great opening acts over the years - Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder - but we've never been introduced by a president of the United States. And didn't he do well?''

Concerned celebrities did well to be chauffeur-driven in hybrid Hondas and Toyotas, not gas-guzzling limos, to show support on the green carpet. Famous eco-activists included a baseball-jacketed Leonardo DiCaprio, Christina Aguilera (in camo-jeans, a tank top and a pink Stones lip pendant), Cameron Diaz (in belled jeans), Lisa Kudrow, Arianna Huffington and her daughter Christina, Norman Lear, Lawrence Bender, Mira Sorvino, Pierce Brosnan and wife Keely Shaye Smith, Larry David, Richard Lewis, Bill Maher and California Gov. Gray Davis. None of them mingled with the hoi polloi, preferring to huddle in a private VIP pre-party, closed to the press, before the concert.

In the lobby before, during and after the packed concert, the NRDC booths (where you could sign postcards to stop Detroit from overturning California's new Clean Car law) were not as hot as the Stones booths. There fans stocked up on $350 black leather jackets, $45 T-shirts, $15 posters and $10 blinking lip lights.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1) JAGGER: Time still on his side.

(2) CLINTON: Do the Stones need a sax player?

Lester Cohen/WireImage.com

(3) AGUILERA: Is THAT tongue pierced, too?

(4) PINKETT SMITH and SMITH: They've got game.

(5) REEVES: Hat's on.

Gregg DeGuire/WireImage.com

(6) MANSON: Trick or treat?

Chris Pizzello/Associated Press