Garcetti, walking the talk

ARENA is a big, loud nightclub in Hollywood, not the kind of place you'd expect to find your city councilman, much less the president of the Los Angeles City Council. But there Eric Garcetti was on a recent evening, looking typically polished and ardent. He had just delivered a speech to a crowd of Rotarians who were using the club for the night, extolling the "sheer human diversity" of his district, the 13th, and Garcetti was on his way out of the club. It was almost 9 p.m. and he had to get to another party.

Before Garcetti could reach the door, however, he heard his name shouted out -- "Eriiic!" -- and turned to see a bear of a man in headphones, calling from behind the turntable booth. Like pretty much everyone else Garcetti would come into contact with that night, even the Arena DJ knew the councilman by name.

Could there be a more fitting representative for Hollywood, the place and the idea, than Garcetti? Handsome, approachable, with an air of boyish honesty, he can sound like a Frank Capra-conceived idealist. Then there are the finely tailored Hugo Boss suits and the nonstop charm and poker face, all of which can make him seem more like a CAA agent.

"People need to see that you're connected with the leadership," Garcetti said about his reputation as someone who is often out on the town. "Whether that be political leadership, like the mayor, or cultural leadership -- celebrities -- or the business leadership."

He has two degrees from Columbia, and let's not forget the Rhodes scholarship. That Garcetti, an Encino boy, a Harvard-Westlake School graduate, the son of former Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, didn't set off to make millions on Wall Street or go straight to Washington but chose instead to return to L.A., to live in Echo Park no less, may be an indication of the rise of a new generation of civic-minded native Angeleno elite. That he has been able to get so much done so quickly is a testament to the reviving fortunes of the place that is Hollywood.

Garcetti, who was elected to the council in 2001 when he was 30, draws frequent comparison to another Rhodes Scholar, Bill Clinton. True, that is the political equivalent of naming the next Marlon Brando -- you've heard it 200 times -- but watching Garcetti in action, thoughts of the ex-prez do inevitably come up. Garcetti has just got that thing, that extra-verbal thing (though the guy can talk).