Joe Cerrell

The best place to find a Los Angeles elected official Monday was not at City Hall, but a few miles away at Dodger Stadium. The team's opening day game against the San Diego Padres was such a hallowed event to some City Council members that they shut down their offices and switched on the answering machines. Councilman Ed Reyes, whose district includes the stadium, bought tickets for his employees. Others, such as Mayor James K.

FLY AWAY--In further evidence that the election to retain Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird is unprecedented--catch TWA Ambassador magazine this month. A full-page color portrait of the justice accompanies an eight-page article, done without benefit of an interview with the jurist. It's more than rare that an international airline mag focuses on a state race, especially a state judicial race--especially since the deadline for this piece was in late July.

What are the stars doing this fall? When Pope John Paul II and 27 ecumenical leaders meet in Columbia, S.C., next Friday, some well-known entertainment personalities will be participating as readers at the service. Among the names being mentioned around town are Helen Hayes, Bonita Granville Wrather, Michael Keaton and Richard Thomas. . . . Here's an argument for quality TV expected this season--look for a two-hour TV movie based on "Inherit the Wind" and starring Kirk Douglas.

WHEN ARTS COLLIDE--What happens when the Music World meets the Art World? For one thing, it gets very crowded. As it did Monday night, when, in a benefit for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Joni Mitchell showed her paintings and several hundred music-industry types crushed into the James Corcoran Gallery. Backgrounded by Mitchell's new album, "Dog Eat Dog," Wendy Stark, who organized the event with Marcia Medavoy, chatted with Wallis Annenberg and Dr.

The only two general election mayoral debates to be carried live by Los Angeles television stations are scheduled for Sunday and Monday, nearly eight weeks after the two finalists were determined in the April 20 primary election. Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 28 had all invited Richard Riordan and Michael Woo onto their airwaves for a number of debates. And Woo, who finished second in the primary with 24% of the vote, accepted all the invitations, according to various station officials.

Determined to defend itself against damaging malpractice allegations, O'Melveny & Myers, the city's oldest blue-chip law firm, has hired a well-connected political consulting group to convince nervous politicians and a skeptical public that the controversial Belmont Learning Complex should be built despite its potentially hazardous site.

The primary victory was surprisingly easy for Rep. Jay Kim (R-Diamond Bar), the target of an ongoing federal probe into alleged violations of election, tax and labor laws stemming from his 1992 campaign. His main opponent had sent out mailers saying Kim had "betrayed" his constituency and calling him two-faced for running as a reform candidate during his last campaign. So how did Kim do so well? "Hard to say," said the nation's first Korean congressman after his victory.

Every once in a great while politicians manage to look like real people--you know, have a nice dinner, tell a few stories, share a little ho-ho. And, in fact, it happened Thursday night when political consultant Joe Cerrell and his wife, Lee, filled "one big head table" at a private room at Perino's in honor of City Council President John Ferraro and his wife, Margaret.

Faced with the sometimes choppy waters of ethnic politics, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday could have used the navigating prowess of Christopher Columbus and the negotiating skills of Cesar Chavez. The touchy issue at hand: whether to allow 2,000 city employees to take Cesar Chavez Day as a paid city holiday instead of Columbus Day.

For once, it's the theater that gets to take the bow. But then again, even its artistic director, Gordon Davidson, modestly admits that the 20th anniversary of the Mark Taper Forum is a more-than-unique event. "It gives me a moment's pause because there aren't too many theater movements that have lasted 20 years . . . and we are the only resident theater that has survived 20 years in a cultural complex," Davidson said. "It's a unique story.