very strange!!
At the terminal enter:
ls -al /usr/bin/* | grep open*
in the output there should be a soffice file, if its there move it from /usr/bin to your home directory by entering, as root:
mv /usr/bin/soffice /home/user_name
then copy the file that you said launches openoffice with, as root:
cp /path/to/openoffice/launcher /usr/bin/openoffice.org-2.1
then retry the command,
openoffice.org-2.1
if it works try the launchers in the menu, if they don't come back here :-)
Chris.