So, is the new 'Poseidon' ship-shape?

By William Keck
Published in USA Today :: 5/11/2006 7:40 PM ET

Carol Lynley, Red Buttons and Pamela Sue Martin are reunited at the premiere of Poseidon at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

HOLLYWOOD — Among the guests at Wednesday's premiere after-party for Warner Bros.' adventure picture Poseidon (opening today) were three familiar faces from Irwin Allen's original 1972 disaster classic, The Poseidon Adventure: Red Buttons (James), 87, Carol Lynley (Non-nie), 64, and Pamela Sue Martin (Susan), 53.

When a photographer asked Lynley and Martin to give Buttons a kiss, he humorously scolded, "No, I'm with my girlfriend (artist Jane Wooster Scott), and she's very jealous." Lynley, who will be having hip-replacement surgery in February, offered a frisky explanation for why she was using a cane: "Too much sex."

Having just viewed the remake at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the threesome discussed how the new film sparked memories of their beloved original.

Q: What about this new Poseidon reminded you of your version?

Buttons: "None of it. It was a completely different picture. The special effects were spectacular, but our film had more involvement with the people."

Lynley: "A lot of it. It's a much bigger movie, and the actors were all wonderful, but I thought the special effects were overdone."

Q: Was there even one scene from this film that reminded you of yours?

Buttons: "When the ocean hit the ship."

Martin: "When they had to climb up the shaft with the water coming up behind them."

Q: Which new character most reminded you of your character?

Lynley: "All the women were so wet all the time, and they were all brunettes wearing maroon — I had a hard time separating them. There was one (Mia Maestro) that kept whining, 'I can't,' who reminded me of Non-nie. And Richard Dreyfuss reminded me of Red, although this time the character is gay."

Martin: "Emmy Rossum's character. I told her tonight, 'You didn't have as much corny dialogue as we had.' And she said, 'We didn't have any dialogue.' "

Q: What was your favorite scene from your version of the movie?

Buttons: "All of it. I wrote one joke about our picture: 'You know why Shelley Winters died? She tried to talk underwater.' "

Lynley: "All of it. I liked the score of our movie better. This film was so noisy. My character sang Morning After in the original, and I did like Fergie (of the Black Eyed Peas) singing in this. I'm a big fan of hers."

Q: Which of your former cast members do you miss most?

Lynley: "Shelley (Winters, who died in January). I went to her last birthday party (her 85th) in August. I said to her, 'If you were English, you'd be called Dame Shelley Winters.' And she said, 'Oh, I've been called a dame before.' "

Martin: "Gene Hackman. I adopted him as my father figure for the four months we were filming. And then when it was over, I never saw him again."