'Bonfire' gets chilly reception

HOLLYWOOD -- "The Bonfire of the Vanities" is getting a chilly reception at test screenings, sources say. The cold shoulder has generated at least one report that the film will not make its scheduled Christmastime release -- which Warner Bros. flatly denies.

"It will absolutely be at theaters on Dec. 21," says Rob Friedman, Warners' president of worldwide advertising and publicity. He stresses that the controversial film is a work-in-progress. "Any screenings you may be reporting on do not necessarily reflect the final cut of the movie."

Tom Wolfe's best-selling novel was a dark and biting social satire about a snobbish Wall Street hot shot (played by Tom Hanks in the film) who accidentally runs over a black teen-ager in the Bronx, triggering a trial that brings racial recriminations and becomes a media circus.