Piper Lauie- Fri., Oct. 6, 1995 by Cynthia Robins of the Examiner Staff

It was marvy in Marin for the opening of the 18th annual Mill valley Film Festival Thursday night. the moon was getting fat and bright. The weather stayed fairly balmy. and under the big white tent that ate up a chunk of a downtown parking lot. The opening night film was an adaption of Truman Capote's evocative and sweet "The Grass Harp," directed by Charles Matthau, son of Walter and Carol Matthau, a long, skinny drink of a guy who walks just like his dad- head forward, get set, shamble- shared the festival spotlight with one of his co-stars, Piper Laurie, whose portrayal of Miss Dolly, the evanescently dingy aunt may just win her an Oscar nomination.

Laurie, whose real name, Matthau announced, is Rosetta Jacobs Morgenstern, arrived shortly before the screening from a film set in Utah. Wearing her version of the Annie Hall look- white bowler hat over her red hair, wire-rim glasses and a red Indian blanket patterned coat- she seemed rather press shy and diffident.

Unlike some of his cast members, namely his dad, Walter, and Walter's buddy Jack Lemmon, Charlie Matthau didn't meet Laurie until 10 days before they began filming in Alabama. "He claims I was always one of the two people he wanted for the part," she says. a role which she says, "was not easy, Truman's work requires real dedication."