For Day 2, Zsa Zsa Lets Her Hair Down

Never mind that Zsa Zsa Gabor’s criminal trial was only two days old and still dawdling through jury selection. Sherman S. Weber foresees an outcome.

“She’s going to be acquitted, I can tell you,” Weber maintained, insisting that the reason lay in his hand: a hardback copy of “The Black Robe,” his self-published novel about an entire judicial system gone awry.

For years, Weber has been handing out autographed copies of the 400-page opus as good-luck charms--magic doses of literature that allegedly won elections for Gov. George Deukmejian, Sen. Pete Wilson and Assemblyman Tom Hayden, among others.

This week it was Gabor’s turn to get a boost.

“I autographed a book for her and she’s going to win . . . ,” the 69-year-old retired lawyer asserted, talking loudly above the throng outside the Beverly Hills courtroom. “Because when I autograph a book. . . .”

Others, too, crowded the halls and jammed the 72-seat court chambers where Gabor entered her second day of trial on Tuesday. She faces misdemeanor charges of disobeying and slapping a Beverly Hills motorcycle officer and driving without a license. During a trial now expected to extend into next week, the actress is planning to show evidence that her actions during a heated altercation with Officer Paul Kramer were motivated by miscommunication and self-defense.

Many of the courtroom spectators were, like Weber, fans hoping to see Gabor ultimately vindicated. Others were longtime trial watchers settling in for the show, shuffling through the courthouse halls like amateur Perry Masons. Still others were simply there on a whim, or fulfilling obscure business missions.

“I’m a comedienne and a traffic school instructor,” said Shirlee Smith, who combines the two avocations at the Lettuce Amuse You traffic school in Los Angeles. For Smith, the trial is a gold mine: an uproarious way to illustrate facts about legal procedures, moving traffic violations, the California Vehicle Code and arrest etiquette.

Lesson No. 1?

“Don’t slap an officer,” Smith said.

She laughed--a little joke.

Gabor, who dressed conservatively in black with her blonde locks pulled back in a bun during Day 1 of the trial, let her hair down on Tuesday, and then some. Her camel-and-black leopard-print Donna Karan dress featured a plunging neckline, and she wore a diamond-studded cross pendant that hung--in the judgment of some observers--just about as far as it could hang.

Well-wisher Margaret Holloway of Los Angeles, dressed in a stylish felt hat, handed Gabor a heart-covered sign--”I Love Zsa Zsa”--which the actress cheerfully held aloft for cameras. Holloway said she had met Gabor once at Beverly Hills’ Saks Fifth Avenue.

“She was very sweet,” the 60-year-old admirer said. “I know what she’s going through.”

Morris Rosenbloom, 81, boasted of exchanging a few words with her. He told Gabor she was more beautiful than when he ran into her once, about 10 years ago, at a restaurant.

“She turned and said, ‘Oh, darling, thank you very much,’ ” Rosenbloom said. “I’ve been a fan of hers.”

Some observers were more dedicated than others. One slightly disheveled gentleman excused himself from court on Monday saying he had to catch a spaceship. Goldie Jacobson of Beverly Hills stopped by on Tuesday while out for a walk.

“This is almost a sitcom,” she said of the proceeding.

Spry, 79-year-old Arthur Nattenberg said he doesn’t give a hoot about Gabor. He sat through two days of tedious jury selection because he is attending law school.

“I want to know what’s going on as far as the questioning of jurors,” he said. “That’s just fascinating to me.”

The process was less compelling to others, notably Gabor’s husband, Prince Frederick von Anhalt of Germany, who appeared to doze off momentarily an hour before noon on Tuesday--or about five hours earlier than he appeared to doze off on Monday.

The first apparent nap came as Gabor’s attorney, William Graysen, grilled one would-be juror on the error tolerances inherent to aerospace engineering. Tuesday’s came during a similarly engrossing probe into burnout among film-lab chemists.

Still, the crowds lingered, much to the chagrin of attorney Laurence Ring, who was trying to enter the courtroom on an unrelated case. Ring made a similar attempt Monday, only to be shoved back by seemingly hostile bailiffs.

“I’ve been here twice in two days and I can’t get my client’s business done,” he said with exasperation. “It’s beyond my comprehension.”