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Dueling Deans

The phrase “cross-town rivalry” might as well have been invented for USC and UCLA especially during the football season. But it apparently hasn’t established much of a foothold in their respective business schools.

Consider that Randolph W. Westerfield, who has been dean of USC’s Marshall School for more than five years, is a graduate of UCLA. And Bruce G. Willison, the just-appointed dean of UCLA’s Anderson School has an MBA from you guessed it, USC.

Willison said that while his MBA may be from USC, his undergraduate degree in economics is from UCLA. Deep down, he says, he’s a Bruin.

“My kids don’t believe I ever actually went to USC because I’m such a Bruin fan football, basketball, everything,” he said.

What about UCLA grad Westerfield?

“I’m a Trojan fan no doubt about that,” he said. “I’ll be sitting on the Trojan side of the stadium for sure.”

‘Growth Industry’

Century City attorney Richard LeBell Morgan has the answer for employers concerned that the loose lips and roving hands of workers could bring on a costly sexual harassment lawsuit.

For $99.95, Morgan will sell them his “Employer’s Anti-Sexual Harassment Kit,” which comes with just about everything a company could need to take a proactive stance against the problem.

There’s a ready-made company policy against sexual harassment, an investigative checklist even a questionnaire for employees to fill out every three to six months to report strange and unusual behavior.

According to Morgan, the questionnaire provides employers with a bit of legal protection if workers should someday claim no steps were taken to prevent workplace harassment.

“Sexual harassment is a growth industry,” he says. “This kit is very cost-effective.”

‘Jeopardy’ It Ain’t

Leave it to cable TV to push the envelope.

The Game Show Network, a Sony Pictures Entertainment company, recently debuted “Burt Luddin’s Love Buffet,” a risqu & #233; version of more traditional dating shows.

Real couples, whether dating, married or partners of the same sex, compete by trying to guess how their significant other would answer questions like, “If your partner had an affair with some member of your family other than you, who would it be?”

Other shows have explored such explicit territory, but not to the point of having contestants hold up boxer shorts or panties to signal answers to a round of questions.

Producers say the show is still evolving.

“We’re always trying to figure out how far we can go and where we want to draw the line,” said John Cervenka, “We have a lot of latitude with the network, but just because you have it, you don’t exercise it all the time.”

Image Makeover

For years, Los Angeles has played third fiddle behind New York and Paris in the world of fashion.

But a recent salute to Beverly Hills shops and merchants by Vogue magazine suggests that L.A. is finally a major fashion stop not just a way station.

“L.A. has never been on the second rung in terms of style,” said Andre Leon Talley, Vogue’s editor-at-large. “Style always comes from the movies, although it is questionable at times.”

Talley says he is bemused by Los Angeles, with its neatly manicured lawns outside those faux Tudor mansions in Hancock Park and Beverly Hills.

“I think of L.A. as a kind of prop city,” he said.