Rick Warren interviews the presidential candidates as almost 6 million watch on Fox, CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN (as well as Daystar and KDOC), and he does the talk-show circuit (“Larry King Live,” “Hannity & Colmes,” “Nightline,” etc.). Athletes with local connections,volleyballer Misty May-Treanor, swimmers Jason Lezak, Aaron Peirsol and Dara Torres, Kobe, nearly six dozen in all,excel at the Beijing Olympics. Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” with spinoffs in Manhattan and soon in Atlanta and New Jersey (?!), gear up for their fourth season. What would television do without OC? …
Speaking of which, MTV’s OC-bred reality star Lauren Conrad (“The Hills” and “Laguna Beach”) will unveil her fall fashion collection with a runway show at the Irvine Spectrum on Sept. 8, kicking off the center’s “Style Week” …
National Democrats are committing troops to Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook’s spirited, if long-shot, congressional race against 10-term incumbent Dana Rohrabacher. Campaign Group principal Bill Wachob, an architect of Loretta Sanchez’s 1996 upset of Bob Dornan, is advising Cook. Redlands native Kevin Thurman, a Beltway campaign consultant most recently with Hillary Clinton, has come aboard as her campaign manager. Thurman has sent a letter to Rhonda Rohrabacher, Dana’s wife and campaign manager, calling for three debates. Even if Cook doesn’t win, her efforts could force Republicans to defend their “safe” seat …
Eddy Hartenstein’s daunting new day job is publisher of the troubled Los Angeles Times. But he also recently took a board seat at Irvine chipmaker Broadcom. Hartenstein brings a reader’s familiarity and an outsider’s business perspective to the Times. To Broadcom, Hartenstein, the founding president and a past chairman and CEO of DirecTV, brings a customer’s familiarity and a valued technologist’s pedigree. DirecTV buys a lot of Broadcom chips for its set-top boxes. And Hartenstein is a pioneer of the satellite TV industry, with science degrees from Cal Poly Pomona and Caltech; like Broadcom cofounder Henry Samueli, he’s a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering …
He used to go door to door collecting rent in Watts and sold naming rights to his modest La Mirage Hotel and Casino to Steve Wynn for $300,000. Newport Beach developer Robert Mayer recounts those stories, the Hilton Waterfront and Hyatt Regency projects in Huntington Beach and more in an autobiography, “Without Risk, There’s No Reward,” by Santa Ana-based Seven Locks Press …
New arrivals: James Brody Berman, to the OCBJ’s Alisha Gomez and hubby Corey Berman, security engineer for the Port of Long Beach. Also, Cash Landon Loyd, to OCBJ’s Richard Loyd and wife Jeana …
Hollywood South: Julie Hill and Valerie Whiting already are planning next year’s OC gala for Oceana. Last month’s inaugural event at Karen and Bruce Cahill’s Laguna Beach estate featured Harrison Ford, Ted Danson and other helicopter-chauffeured celebs and raised $1 million. It was a record for the environmental group, eclipsing its Hollywood fundraisers.
