Make Mine a Double Feature

One of the things you don't see on the White House tour is the 40-seat movie theater in the East Wing. Any time the president and the first family want to watch a movie, they can have it screened in the comfort of their own home.

Talk all you want about your home entertainment system with a plasma TV and surround-sound audio, but it can't compare to watching "The Matrix" or "The Italian Job" on a full-sized screen while relaxing in a seat with cup holders. If you had your own theater, what would you show? Action flicks? Black-and-white dramas? Artsy French Nouvelle Vague? If you're the lucky winner of the American Film Institute Silver Theatre's contest, you can act like you own the joint for one night.

Pick any two films ever made, and as long as AFI can get them on 35mm prints -- and as long as they're not porn, or unsuitable for public exhibition --the movies will be screened as a double feature in the main theater. The winner also gets to introduce the film and 10 friends get free tickets to enjoy the show, while the rest of the seats will be sold to the general public.

"People always say 'Why don't you show this' or 'Why don't do a night for this,'" explains AFI Media and Public Relations Manager Connie Poole, "and we thought this was the best way to let the general public get involved."

Entering the contest is free: Go to the AFI's Web site and fill out a brief form, listing the five films you'd most like to see. (This is to screen for availability and to make sure you're not trying to show anything untoward.) A randomly-selected winner will be announced at Arch Campbell's Sundays at the Silver on April 22. Twenty-five runners-up receive movie posters.

-- Fritz