JUST LOOK AT ME! Newport Beach Mayor...

JUST LOOK AT ME! Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner is trying to take some edge off the city’s sexual harassment controversy. . . . Most of the 10 women with sexual harassment complaints against the Police Department have gone on stress-related leaves. But Turner told a community group this week that he’s had to endure endless harassment about this case, yet medical tests show his blood pressure excellent: “See, I’ve been harassed, but I’m not stressed out.” Some chuckled; others bristled at his comparison.

SQUEEKY WHEELS: It does pay, occasionally, to complain in big numbers. Rep. Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) wrote to Caltrans that he was unhappy with its plan to use gas taxes to buy coupons as incentives for commuters to begin car-pooling. . . . Ferguson got six Republican colleagues in the Legislature to co-sign. Caltrans’ response: It has “refocused” its incentive campaign “in an effort to address your concerns,” by concentrating on business donations to support incentive programs.

DANA’S SHADOW: Actor Daniel Trent returns for his 12th summer portraying novelist--and Dana Point’s namesake--Richard Henry Dana in “Two Years Before the Mast.” (F1) Performances begin tonight aboard the Pilgrim, a replica of the ship Dana sailed on from Boston to California via Cape Horn in 1834. Trent also plays the other characters, and calls the one-man production a “study in schizophrenia.” He jokes: “The cast parties are boring as hell.”

LAGUNA HEAT: If a teen-ager in your family has cable permanently tuned to MTV, you’ll get a chance to see a lot of Laguna Beach today. The “Beach MTV” cameras were at Main Beach there in May for a two-hour segment than runs today from 1 to 3 p.m. and repeats at 8 p.m. . . . Host Dave Cortez interviews young beach-goers between music videos. Says MTV spokeswoman Judy Atencio: “It’s 106 degrees in New York this week; those people can watch and see how great life is in California.”