‘Very, Very Close Friend’ Will Enter the Limelight

For exciting debuts at today’s inaugural celebration, don’t count on the Police Concert Band, the Korean farmers dance or even Mayor Richard Riordan’s address to the people.

With apologies to the new mayor, those acts have been around the block a couple of times before.

Instead, the most surprising turn in the spotlight is likely to be taken by the mayor’s date, Nancy Daly.

Little seen as Riordan crisscrossed the city for months on the campaign trail, Daly will be introduced to Los Angeles today as the woman at the side of the city’s first new mayor in 20 years.

She will attend a morning Mass with the mayor, take a symbolic march from Union Station to City Hall and stand with Riordan for most of today’s ceremonies. And this evening, Daly, 52, and Riordan, 63, will have a dinner for the entire City Council at his Brentwood mansion.

But what to call this new figure in the mayor’s life, the woman who Riordan calls “one of my closest confidants”?

Companion? First Girlfriend? Adviser without portfolio?

“She is my very, very close friend,” Riordan suggests. “Girlfriend is sort of demeaning for a woman in this day and age.”

With both Riordan and Daly still married but legally separated from their spouses, they say they plan to continue a close relationship that began a year ago because of their common interest in issues involving children.

But marriage?

“I have no idea,” Daly said. And Riordan offered: “Not in the immediate future. Neither of us is divorced, for one thing.”

Riordan and his second wife, Jill, separated four years ago, and she lives in Carmel. Nancy and Warner Bros. studio chief Bob Daly, who were married for 30 years, split in late 1991 and are in the midst of a contentious divorce.

The upshot is that Riordan and Daly have found each other, and the estranged wife of one of Hollywood’s most powerful men is now the partner of the city’s new preeminent politician.

In her new role, Daly is likely to counsel the mayor as much as any other individual, Riordan said. “Aside from being a very caring human being, she has a very good, pragmatic sense of how things get done,” he said. “She is not just some flaky do-gooder.”

That is an opinion confirmed by Daly’s co-workers in the children’s rights movement, which she helped energize locally when she arrived in Los Angeles from New York 15 years ago.

Daly began visiting MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte, the county’s home for neglected and abused children, and was appalled by the conditions she found there.

What began with visits by Daly and her entertainment industry allies to comfort children soon evolved into the United Friends of the Children, an advocacy and fund-raising organization.

Again tapping her Hollywood connections, Daly helped raise millions of dollars for the children’s home--funds that went to build a pool, refurbish the facility and open a store where children could cash in good-behavior chits for name-brand clothing.

She then turned to the legislative arena, and nearly a decade ago “single-handedly” helped county Supervisor Ed Edelman establish the county Department of Children’s Services, Edelman recalled. The man who now heads the department, Peter Digre, calls Daly “the most effective advocate for children in the country.”

That sort of glowing endorsement was cemented for Daly, in large part, through her work on behalf of “family preservation,” a movement to return foster children to their parents.

Former state Assemblyman Bruce Bronzan (D-Fresno) said it was Daly and her allies who introduced him to the issue, eventually resulting in several laws that encourage counties to spend much of their foster care money on reuniting families.

“Nancy Daly has been one of the most important, if not the most important, people on this issue,” Bronzan said. “If you can save the family, you end up with a healthier and more successful child.”

Daly helped push the issue before a national commission as well, and several bills are now pending in Congress to promote family reunification.

The issue also brought together the multimillionaire businessman, Riordan, and the studio head’s wife, Daly, when she came calling several years ago to ask him to build a computer reading lab at MacLaren Children’s Center. He did. Then she returned for donations to a children’s immunization program. He gave generously and asked his friends to do the same.

“He doesn’t procrastinate. He gets things done,” Daly said admiringly. “I certainly always knew he was involved in the kinds of things I care about.”

Only later, when she was separated, did Riordan call and ask her to dinner. And although neither wants to go into details, they acknowledge that their relationship has evolved into something more serious.

“We share a lot of interests. We care a lot about making a difference for people,” Daly said in explaining her attraction to Riordan. “It’s very nice. It’s very comfortable. We share a very equal relationship.”

Photos of the couple together already dot the warm, floral living room of Daly’s 15-room Bel-Air home, near photographs of her three grown children.

Daly sinks into a deep couch and holds a Yorkshire terrier named Molly. A staff serves fresh-squeezed orange juice and tends to Daly’s requests, delivered via intercom, as Daly proclaims that she is somewhat anxious about her new role as the mayor’s companion.

“It’s all a little bit unnerving,” she said. “But I’m very excited to be a part of the celebration. I’m so excited about him and I believe in him and his ability to do something for the city.”

Daly describes herself as aliberal Democrat, one who joined thousands last year in a march on Washington for abortion rights. But she said she has no qualms about dating Riordan, who once described himself as a Reagan Republican and who gave $10,000 to a group opposed to abortion.

“I heard some people thought I was betraying my Democratic roots, but I think that is shortsighted,” said Daly, adding that she is comfortable with Riordan’s current stand in favor of abortion rights. “I feel that Dick Riordan is a gift to this city, and if people are too shortsighted to accept it, it’s their loss.”