Even at This Dance, It Still Takes Two to Tango

Shall we dance? The guest of honor was sidelined with pneumonia, but U.S. Rep. Howard Berman’s recent fund-raiser at the Beverly Hilton was the place for Democrats to see and be seen.

Berman’s district may be entirely in the Valley now, but the crowd was much more Beverly Hills than Burbank.

Working the room is always de rigueur at these gatherings but on this occasion the practice was almost frenzied. Politicians elbowed their way around the ballroom, pumping the donor flesh in an age-old political dance--with a new twist.

Let’s call it the Term Limit Tango.

There was Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who wants to be governor, passing Westside Assemblyman Burt Margolin, who wants to be insurance commissioner.

Controller Gray Davis, who has his eye on the lieutenant governor’s job, rubbed elbows with two would-be controllers: Board of Equalization member Brad Sherman and Alameda County Supervisor Don Perata.

Thanks to term limits, State Sen. President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Van Nuys) is looking at the State Treasurer’s job. He crossed paths at the dinner with the presumptive heir to his current job, State Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward).

Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), who has her eye on the secretary of state post, was also there. Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood) escorted Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove), an attorney general hopeful, around the room.

Janis Berman, now an aide to Mayor Richard Riordan, offered a brief welcome on behalf of her husband. George Stephanopoulos, an aide to President Clinton, also jetted out to speak.

To top things off, elusive political consultant Michael Berman, Howard’s younger brother, attended, looking uncharacteristically rested and unrumpled.

Michael Berman, who generally shuns these schmooze-fests, told people what triggered Howard’s illness: He quit smoking and started exercising.

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Culture clash: The wildfires flushed some of Topanga Canyon’s diehard hippies out of the underbrush last week--and right into the lap of Mayor Riordan.

The button-down Republican mayor stopped off at an evacuation shelter Wednesday and found himself sharing dinner with a Topanga refugee of distinctly countercultural striping. In a spacey singsong, the 40-ish woman emoted on the blessings of rustic living--her current plight notwithstanding--then turned the table talk to Riordan, who was munching on a chicken burger.

“S-o-o-o, like, what’s it like to be mayor?� she asked, adding sympathetically that it must be hard to always have a ready answer for reporters who’ll jump on the slightest misstep.

Riordan, not noted for his silver tongue, allowed that, yes, it was a challenge.

But a few moments later, when the woman referred mistakenly to his “wife,� the unmarried Riordan had no trouble finding the right word.

“Girlfriend,� he corrected, smiling, suddenly sounding so very hip.

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Fire reflections: Laurence Cohen, a movie publicist who raises money for homeless families in his spare time, was picking through the ashes of his incinerated apartment in Las Flores Canyon on Wednesday.

“Just yesterday morning I was taping a radio show about the homeless, and I said, ‘Yeah, there are a lot of winos and druggies on the street, but a lot of us are one incident away from being homeless,’ � said Cohen, president of a group called Spare Change.

“I could use the Hair Club (for Men) line,� he joked between tears. “I’m not just the president, I’m also a client.�

As smoke rose from the rubble, actress Kay Lenz, Cohen’s client and friend, said: “I can’t even believe it’s real. It’s like someone’s going to shout, ‘Cut! Everybody back to first position.’ �

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Bambi, the hero: Heard enough heartwarming stories about people saving animals from the fires? Here’s an animal-saves-human change of pace.

As the flames neared his mobile home in Los Flores Canyon Tuesday afternoon, John Davison had every intention of sticking around to defend the place. Not until a deer bolted from the brush and stared straight into Davison’s eyes did the 39-year-old mortgage banker grasp the scope of the inferno.

“It was like the deer was telling me, ‘Get the hell out of here or you’re going to die,’ � Davison recalled later.

The sheer weirdness of the encounter spurred Davison into action. He hopped on his bicycle and followed the bounding deer down the road. Tree branches burst into flames overhead as he went. Twice, his shirt caught fire, forcing him to dump his bike and roll on the ground to extinguish the flames. He finally made it to safety at Pacific Coast Highway, three-quarters of a mile from his home, but not before a flat tire forced him to finish the ride from the inferno on a bare wheel rim.

Davison returned Wednesday to find his trailer in ashes, but he was grateful for his four-legged wake-up call.

“I’m lucky to be alive,’ he said. “I could have gone up with everything.�

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Pro bono: Dunkirk it wasn’t, but skipper Bertram McCann wants us to know that he waived his usual fee of $250 an hour for the two-boat armada that ferried fire-stranded Malibu residents around police blockades during the fires.

One passenger thought his house had burned down, but came out to help neighbors with food. “It was a thrill to see his expression when, though most houses around him had burnt, his was still standing,� McCann said.

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Gone south: Pico Boulevard is still not ready for prime time.

Last week in this space we discussed the new CBS series “South of Sunset,� the tale of a detective agency on a boulevard that’s way south of Sunset.

We noted that the show’s national debut on Oct. 27 had been preempted in Los Angeles by news coverage of the first round of wildfires, and said the local prime-time premiere would be on Nov. 3 “if the creek doesn’t rise.�

Well, the creek rose, at least figuratively. After the Oct. 27 show drew some of the lowest-ever ratings for a series premiere, CBS quickly pulled the plug.

Perhaps the legacy of “South of Sunset� may be to keep producers away from Pico Boulevard next time they seek a Westside venue for a series. “Beverly Hills Buntz,� the 1987-88 NBC entry also set on Pico, never found much of an audience either.

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A NAFTA nudge: Westside Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) is one of the most prominent Democrats who has not yet taken a position on the North American Free Trade Agreement. His counsel on the treaty--particularly its environmental implications--has been sought by many of his colleagues.

It was hardly surprising, then, that Waxman was called to the White House on Wednesday for a NAFTA chat with President Clinton, who is campaigning hard for congressional ratification.

Still, Waxman may not have expected to spend 45 minutes in the Oval Office with Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Howard Paster, the president’s chief Capitol Hill lobbyist.

Waxman emerged still fence-sitting but impressed by the attention. Asked if he heard any new arguments, he replied: “I have to tell you, honestly, no. But when you hear it from the president and the vice president sitting on either side of you, you pay close attention.�

Waxman said he expressed “concerns about the impact of NAFTA on the environment, on jobs, on the (ability) of the United States to pass our own health and safety laws.� Such laws, he said, could conceivably be challenged by Mexico or Canada as trade barriers that violate the terms of the agreement.

He said he suggested renegotiating the proposed pact--which Clinton rejected.

“Both the president and the vice president made their case, and they had a strong case to make,� Waxman said. “They feel that if we don’t have a NAFTA, we’ll have even less leverage on environmental issues and all the other concerns I raised with them.�

Waxman said that Clinton asked him directly for his vote. But, he added, “I didn’t ask for anything and they didn’t offer me anything� to win his support on the high-stakes showdown.

A source close to Waxman described him as still leaning against the trade pact. But others speculate that his strong political standing in his affluent and heavily Democratic district gives him the freedom to eventually back Clinton on a big vote without fear of any political fallout.

“I feel that I can make the decision I think is right and that people in my district will accept that, even though many of them are against NAFTA,� Waxman said. “It’s one that I have to weigh very carefully.�

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Quaking in his boots: Paul Stepanek, a Westwood resident and president of a video production company, recently sent out a fund-raising letter touting himself as a prospective challenger to the “ultra-liberal� Waxman in 1994.

Stepanek, 33, said in a brief interview that he was “just testing the waters.� He previously worked for the National Republican Senatorial Committee but would be a first-time candidate. In his letter, he said Waxman “supported almost every tax increase proposal in Congress in the last 20 years� and that the lawmaker is part of a federal government “influenced by big bureaucracy, special interest groups and privileged elite.�

Waxman, who has one of the Western Hemisphere’s safest Democratic seats and has not lost an election in 25 years in public life, seems unworried.

“Sounds like a Republican,� he responded when asked about Stepanek’s statements. “Next topic?�

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Council meetings this week:

* Beverly Hills: no meeting (310) 285-2400.

* Culver City: 7 p.m. Monday, interim City Hall, 4095 Overland Ave. (310) 202-5851.

* Los Angeles: 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 200 N. Spring St. (213) 485-3126.

* Malibu: Regular meeting, 6:30 p.m. Monday; special fire information meeting, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday; Hughes Laboratory, 3011 Malibu Canyon Road (310) 456-2489.

* Santa Monica: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. 1685 Main St. (310) 393-9975.

* West Hollywood: no meeting (310) 854-7460.

Contributing to this week’s report were staff writers Nancy Hill-Holtzman, Ken Ellingwood, Mathis Chazanov, Alan C. Miller and Steven Herbert, and correspondents Jeff Kramer and G. Jeanette Avent.