Gary Gitnick

It isn't easy to nab media mogul Rupert Murdoch for a charity chicken dinner. Or Seagram's chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. to boost a local Los Angeles cause. But Gary Gitnick's Fulfillment Fund bagged both for its annual galas--Murdoch last year and Bronfman for this year's Nov. 18 event. And this despite the fact that most Angelenos have never heard of Gitnick or his nonprofit venture.

In laying down the rules for the mayoral candidates attending his Super Bowl party Sunday, Dr. Gary Gitnick was as fierce and unyielding as the toughest referee. Despite rooms bursting with politicos -- including former Gov. Gray Davis, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Los Angeles City Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Dennis Zine -- electioneering was forbidden.

In laying down the rules for the mayoral candidates attending his Super Bowl party Sunday, Dr. Gary Gitnick was as fierce and unyielding as the toughest referee. Despite rooms bursting with politicos -- including former Gov. Gray Davis, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Los Angeles City Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Dennis Zine -- electioneering was forbidden.

It isn't easy to nab media mogul Rupert Murdoch for a charity chicken dinner. Or Seagram's chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. to boost a local Los Angeles cause. But Gary Gitnick's Fulfillment Fund bagged both for its annual galas--Murdoch last year and Bronfman for this year's Nov. 18 event. And this despite the fact that most Angelenos have never heard of Gitnick or his nonprofit venture.

Farrah Fawcett got an unbeatable gift for her 60th birthday: good news from the doctor. The actress, who revealed in October that she was fighting cancer, learned this week that she is cancer-free, spokesman Mike Pingel said Friday. Dr. Gary Gitnick, Fawcett's lead physician at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said the actress "has had a full and complete response to treatment." He described her prognosis as excellent.

Perhaps you're under the mistaken impression that Gray Davis earned the governor's seat by working incredibly long hours, slogging from one tip of California to another and kissing the entire class of 2020. We would like to correct that now. Davis got the job by partying. "We knew this was going to be a great campaign when Gray and I attended [our friends] the Gitnick Super Bowl party," said Gray's wife, Sharon Davis, at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

It was James Cameron's turn to present an award at the Fulfillment Fund's annual gala Nov. 1. The recipient? Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, whose friendship Cameron called, "one of the great treasures in my life. " Cameron thanked the audience for their support of Gianopulos, as well as for their generous bidding during the evening's auction But he suggested to guests from Fox, "I'd like to point out that you just signed a deal with me to make two 'Avatar' movies.

The Scene: Wednesday's benefit world premiere of Universal's "Sgt. Bilko" at CityWalk with a party afterward at Gladstones. The event also served as the kickoff for Comic Relief's five-day American Comedy Festival, which ends Sunday with the taping of an ABC-TV special that will be "kind of like the clean Comic Relief," said President Bob Zmuda.

CHERYL and Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Brad Grey, Ron Meyer, Amy Pascal and nearly 1,000 guests gathered at the Beverly Hilton for the annual STARS benefit gala in support of the Fulfillment Fund. The nonprofit is dedicated to helping high school students graduate and go to college, providing scholarship money, mentoring and college counseling. The Fulfillment Fund serves 3,000 students in the Los Angeles area every year. "Most of our students live in communities of violence and poverty," said Dr.

Los Angeles city government faces a litany of problems, from yawning pension liabilities to poorly paved roads. But few threaten long-term prosperity as much as education, and the ability of the city's public schools to produce an educated, taxpaying workforce. Though the mayor plays no official role in running the schools, voters frequently name education as their top priority in picking the city's chief executive. And Los Angeles' top elected official in recent years has increasingly tried to exert influence, with mixed results.

The resume of Dr. Gary Gitnick, 58, professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, runs about seven pages. Conversely, the resume of Marcello Bermudez, at age 12, may have noted a skill in lock-picking and auto theft. "I was the only kid in the eighth grade who would drive to school," said Bermudez, now 23 and a college graduate and owner of a personal safety equipment company. The lives of Gitnick, an Encino resident, and Bermudez, of Sun Valley, share a common thread, however.

Veterans organizations will share a $149,000 gift from the board of trustees of the Hollywood Canteen Foundation, board president Lew Wasserman said. The Jules and Doris Stein Foundation announced that it will match that contribution, raising the amount donated to 30 Southern California veterans groups to $298,000. Cara a Cara Latino AIDS Project of the Hollywood Sunset Community Clinic recently awarded $15,000 to underwrite T-cell monitoring for low-income people who are HIV positive.