The Screening Room
New Semi-Private Luxe Cinema

This whole Wall Street mess has left you with a hankering for some Hollywood-style escapism. Only, let's get that luxury dialed up...

Introducing the Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas, opening Friday in South Barrington.

Part of the newly opened Arboretum shopping complex, the Cinemas are the first of 50 planned US locations offering state-of-the-art screening rooms modeled on the ones studio execs have used for decades. Capacity tops out at 40 viewers, and each seat is suede-covered and fully reclinable. A concierge is just a call-button away, ready to bring your date a chenille blanket or the two of you a bag of popcorn. (There's also more rarefied nosh like Lobster Rolls, Waygu Beef Burgers and Duck Tacos, although we would caution you to remember you're here for Body of Lies, not dinner theater.)

Admission price for all this, excluding the food, is $35. Obscene, we know. On the other hand, it's a small price to pay to feel like Cecil B. DeMille for a couple of hours.

Plus, the higher rates should help keep out the riffraff.

You know, like screenwriters.