Viva And Daughter 'Snapped' Here

A former cabana boy at the Maidstone Club, former line cook at the Blue Parrot, and former clerk at Reed's Photo, Jesse Feigelman returned to East Hampton this week to direct his first full-length film in the place where he spent his boyhood summers.

"Snapped" is about a young man who commits a minor crime and, in a panic, runs home to East Hampton, where, said the film's producer, Kevin McLeod, he tries to "reintegrate his life with his ex-girlfriend's."

The ex-girlfriend is played by Gaby Hoffmann, a 15-year-old veteran of Hollywood who came east for the filming with her famously unconventional mother, Viva, of Andy Warhol fame.

Not For Money

The teenager had a role in Woody Allen's "Everybody Says I Love You," and other productions, but has reportedly told her mother she is tired of making movies for money and intends from now on to work only on art films.

Viva, a former member of the notorious gang at Warhol's Manhattan studio/crash pad, the Factory, and a star of his avant-garde films - one of those who wasn't a cross-dresser - is said to have agreed.

Ill Ville Pictures, which is producing "Snapped," rented a house in Springs for Viva and her daughter, but the pair bolted when they learned the landlady meant to be there herself on weekends. They lived out of their car for a couple of days until they reached Sydney Maag, who lives in Sag Harbor.

Mold

Ms. Maag used to babysit the teenager, and is still hired on occasion as a traveling companion to Paris and other film locations. She let mother and daughter use her house and went on vacation after seeing them settled in.

Reached last week at Ms. Maag's, Viva said she had her hands full. Her daughter could be heard in the background yelling about her tutor being an hour late, saying she was too busy for an interview, and berating her mother for spending $400 on a new bed.

"Her bed here is just infested with mold. She said it doesn't bother her, but I'm allergic to mold and I know what it can do," said Viva. "I think the mold is affecting her brain. It's putting her in a terrible, terrible mood."

"We went grocery shopping and Sydney said she just couldn't stand the sound of the plastic bags rustling around in the back seat. I told her it's a vitamin deficiency. Or the mold."

Old Friends

When the heyday of the Factory ended, in the early 1970s, Viva became a painter of modest acclaim.

Last week, when she and her daughter were temporarily homeless in the Hamptons, she tried to look up some of her old friends - Andy Warhol had a summer house in Montauk and some of the Factory crowd live here still - but Peter Beard was in England and Paul Morrissey, who directed the Warhol films, was unavailable.

Viva was playing golf on Monday but otherwise was said to be watching carefully while Gaby worked. Mr. McLeod claimed all was serene on the set, though observers said Viva had barged in while the cameras were rolling to complain about the Springs landlady.

The producer described the teenager as a professional, with grown-up ambitions. "I think Gaby wants what all actors want," he said. "Leading roles. Self-realization."

On Location

The Ill Ville Pictures crew will be here through next week. Shooting began two weeks ago, with scenes filmed at Plain and Fancy, a gourmet take-out shop on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, the Honest Diner on Montauk Highway in Amagansett, and on the sidewalk in front of Reed's Photo Shop on Newtown Lane in East Hampton.

All the scenes but one, to be shot at a diner near the Jamaica train station in Queens, are set here.

Mr. McLeod, for whom this is also a first film, said the timing - during the very week of the Hamptons International Film Festival, which draws new and established filmmakers and studio executives to East Hampton - was coincidental.

The budget required shooting off-season, he said, and "You can't shoot in the spring and make it look like summer."

Another "Graduate"?

He described the film as "a drama that uses comedy in an interesting way," in the manner of "The Graduate" and "Something Wild." The screenplay was written by Mr. Feigelman and a friend, Ian Shorao.

The leading role is played by Johnny Zander, 25, a male model. "With or without this film, Johnny will be huge, a huge success," predicted Mr. McLeod.

Right now, the largest thing about Mr. Zander is probably his shiny, Elvis-sized pompadour.

Meanwhile, Mr. Feigelman, whose parents have a vacation house in Springs, is enjoying being back. He went to employees night at the Stephen Talkhouse last week, and was walking around on Monday with a pocketful of cigars, the gift of a character actor in town for the Film Festival.