Julie Vandermost says she’s a government, not a political, consultant and only took up the cause of Sandra Hutchens as a “labor of love.” Still, with her gal Hutchens beating out the formidable John Lewis’ guy, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters, for OC sheriff, it can’t be bad for Vandermost’s business. “Winning always helps,” Lewis says. Walters is taking a “wait and see attitude” before deciding if he’ll run in 2010, Lewis says …
Noted politician-intellectual Tom Campbell is becoming an OC guy. The former Republican congressman from the San Jose area is stepping down as biz dean at Berkeley and joining Chapman U’s law school for a two-year gig starting in January. It’s another coup for Chapman and law dean John Eastman …
Internet grief for indicted Broadcom cofounder Nick Nicholas: Excerpts of a video that allegedly shows Nicholas taking drugs, which surfaced briefly on YouTube last year, now is on the OC Register’s Web site. Also on the Web is a video spoof of Nicholas’ “secret lair,” produced by an “infotainment” company called Minyanville …
Death to the Hollywood celebrity cover
: Emmis Publications throws an invitation-only party for the “redesigned and re-imagined” Orange Coast mag Thursday in the Penthouse at Opus Center Irvine …
Mike Bertolino, who moves up after only one year as Ernst & Young’s OC managing partner (see story, this page), co-hosts a retirement party for his predecessor, Sally Anderson, Thursday at the Pacific Club …
Speaking of Anderson, she, hubbie Tom Rogers of City National Bank, Pacific Life’s Mary Ann Brown and her hubbie EE RR are back from 10 days in France, having survived the treacherous mountain roads of Corsica, seven-course dinners and the strong euro. They found another country beset by a slowing economy, rising fuel costs, falling home prices and “Sex and the City” posters. In Paris, the group crossed paths with President Bush (sort of, their plane and Air Force One passed on the tarmac at Orly.) They dined at Alain Ducasse’s exclusive Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower thanks to transplanted OCer Jean-Fran & #231;ois Casanova, Ducasse’s global operations veep and formerly food and beverage manager of the Sutton Place Hotel (now The Fairmont) in Newport Beach. What are the chances that three sets of strangers on the restaurant elevator would all be from SoCal? Well, the above-mentioned foursome met a northern San Diego County couple and newlyweds from Fountain Valley. On the island of Corsica, the quartet enjoyed the hospitality of another Sutton Place alum, former GM Jean-Pierre Lortal. He is now managing partner of the Grand Hotel Miramar, a four-star in the picturesque seaside town of Propriano. Dual-citizen “JP” says he plans to someday move back with wife Marie Laure and OC-born daughters Vanessa and Sophia: “OC is my corner of paradise, Laguna Beach my home and the USA my love!”
