Oh, the Tales Those Rooms Could Tell : Society: Deal-makers love it. The guest list is from tabloid heaven. No wonder the Peninsula Beverly Hills is hot.

It’s been a scant three years since the Peninsula Beverly Hills opened its heavy glass doors at Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards. And in that short time the five-star, five-diamond-rated hotel, where rooms start at $280, has carved out a chunk of fame--and infamy.

* It’s the breakfast and lunch dining spot for Creative Artists agents, who have to walk only a few feet from their sleek offices next door. The contingent has so much clout that the hotel’s Belvedere restaurant has altered its menu to suit their tastes.

* The rooftop pool is deal-making central. Players ensconce themselves in private cabanas equipped with fax machines, phones and other amenities--the better to clinch those $15-million, three-pic packages.

* The Peninsula is no stranger to the tabloids, which have chronicled the interrupted stays of a few recent hotel guests:

Big, blond former Guess model Anna Nicole Smith and a friend were there in February when they overdosed on prescription drugs and alcohol and were rushed to the hospital, police said.

Singer Courtney Love, widow of Kurt Cobain, was there in April when she called the front desk complaining of an allergic reaction to a prescription medication. She was taken to the hospital and later booked on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance and drug-related paraphernalia, but no charges were filed.

Many other celebrity guests, including Michael Bolton and Cher, have maintained a lower profile--and yet have rated mention in the tabloids.

* The Peninsula’s Club Bar has quickly gotten a rep as a see-and-be-seen scene. Go on a Friday night and you’ll be competing for oxygen with local business types and entertainment execs. Be sure to note the number of patrons on cellular phones.

Not bad for being the new kid on the block.

It’s easy to see why the Peninsula has garnered such a reputation. It is within walking distance of such if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it stores as Neiman Marcus, Barneys and Armani. Short of breaking the law, the staff will do most anything to accommodate the guests. And it doesn’t hurt to be Michael Ovitz’s neighbor.

“The Peninsula opened up at a very good time from a number of standpoints,” says Gary Sherwin, a spokesman for the L.A. Convention & Visitors Bureau. “It was right around the time the Beverly Hills Hotel closed down (for renovations), and they’ve been able to capitalize on that. Their restaurant has really become the new Polo Lounge, and they’ve obviously benefited from CAA. People gravitate to where the power is.”

Even with the landmark Beverly Hills Hotel and its legendary Polo Lounge temporarily sidelined, the Peninsula has tough competition. Down the street is the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Also nearby are the Four Seasons and the Hotel Bel-Air.

Evidently there was room for one more. From the opulent floral arrangements to the Italian Frette bed linens, to the elegantly understated James Northcutt interiors, the Peninsula oozes sophistication and luxury. Attention to detail goes way beyond the complimentary fruit basket, bordering on the fanatical. Engineers called to fix something in a room slip on surgical booties before entering. Repeat guests often find their favorite CD waiting for them.

Jim Carper, editor in chief of the trade magazine Hotels, says: “The small size (195 rooms) gives the sense that it’s an intimate, boutique kind of hotel, where the staff knows the guests. If they charge a high room rate, that kind of sets the tone. But it all comes down to service, how the staff pays attention to you.”

A lot of attention comes at a price. The two-bedroom Presidential Suite runs a cool $3,000 a night, but the private-entrance villas are often favored by celebs and other guests hoping to avoid detection by fans and the media. Sometimes they’re able to fly below the radar, sometimes they aren’t. Any high-profile hotel that attracts high-profile clients is vulnerable to making the news.

John Belushi died of a drug overdose in a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont on the Sunset Strip in 1982. Robert Pilatus, half of the pop duo Milli Vanilli, was at Le Mondrian hotel, also on the Strip, in 1991 when he slashed his wrist, took prescription pills and climbed over a ninth-floor balcony railing before sheriff’s deputies stepped in.

Upscale hotels, including the Peninsula, can also be sources of primo gossip--if one knows how to get it.

Janet Charlton, gossip columnist for the Star, does. “If you can find the right person at a hotel who’s in good spots and talkative, that’s a big score,” she says. “Somebody in room service, or who works behind the front desk, security--waiters are always good, and so are bartenders. . . . But generally the stories are about who’s walking through the lobby with whom, not the most intimate things that go on behind closed doors.”

She has reported on “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Tori Spelling’s raucous parties at the hotel, as well as Michael Bolton sightings.

But even dishier tidbits printed in the tabloid haven’t hurt the Peninsula’s reputation, Charlton says.

“I think we’ve become accustomed to scandal to where it’s not even scandal anymore, it’s just newsworthy information. In the long run I think it’s really helped (the hotel), that little bit of notoriety.”

Others agree.

“I think a little bit (of scandal) always helps a hotel,” Carper says, “especially if it involves movie stars and the jet set. The public appetite for scandal is so great, I don’t think stuff like drug overdoses reflect on the hotel, I think it reflects on the individuals and modern-day society.”

Says Sherwin: “It gives it an aura of glamour and mystery. The only way it could hurt is if the hotel handled the situation badly. But they’ve handled (the episodes) with diplomacy and discretion.”

Peninsula General Manager Ali Kasikci doesn’t subscribe to the any-publicity-is-good-publicity philosophy, but he realizes that the occasional headline is bound to happen.

“I say this jokingly,” he says, “but we don’t have any drugs on our room-service menu. We have approximately 30,000 people staying in the hotel a year. If you remove the roof of the hotel and you have direct access into what’s happening in every room, you would find everything. Every thing. If you have a good credit rating, you can check in. We do not discriminate. But your behavior determines how long you stay.

“Our job here is to maintain the privacy of the guests. (When the tabloids write about hotel happenings), we do not enjoy it, because we feel we have failed.”

And gossip seepage doesn’t always happen deliberately, Kasikci says.

“We employ nice, friendly people. . . . And that is sometimes detrimental to the privacy of our guests because they are so nice and happy and friendly that they talk. And they are very proud when they know famous people are staying here. They say, ‘I vacuumed the room of such-and-such.’ And we try very hard in training them what to say and how to say it.”

Jack Valenti of Washington, D.C., was a 20-year veteran of the Beverly Hills Hotel, staying there on frequent L.A. business trips. When its two-year renovation began at the end of ‘92, the president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America checked out other hotels and decided on the Peninsula.

It didn’t take him long to get hooked on the service. Requests for a plain-paper fax machine and a small television in his bathroom were quickly filled.

“What has now put some connective tissue between me and the hotel is the quality of service,” he says. “It seems their sole motive in life is to please you.”

And there’s probably nothing the hotel wouldn’t do for the many CAA agents who frequent the Belvedere restaurant, making up about 50% of the breakfast business and 30% to 40% of the lunch business.

They’ve altered the menu to accommodate the agents’ health-conscious habits, says restaurant manager Luc Akellino. Fresh fruit, homemade granola and juice are popular morning staples; lunch favorites include simple pastas (forget the cream sauces), salads, fruit platters and grilled fish. Hamburgers, previously taken off the menu, were reinstated when the agents requested them.

“We go out of our way to make things possible for them,” Akellino adds. “If someone (from CAA) calls me and if I’m (booked), I’ll bump somebody. If you have a top guy coming in, I’m not going to say tell that individual ‘No.’ ”

Liza Anderson, a mid-20ish junior publicist with Baker-Winokur-Ryder Public Relations, was wary at first of the hotel bar, but now she finds it a good “club alternative.”

“I’ve always been skeptical about going to hotel bars because I’m young and female and I have a face and a body, and sometimes if you walk into a place like that you have to explain yourself. The Peninsula’s not like that. And (the clientele) is not strictly limited to the (entertainment) business, which is kind of refreshing. Nothing against CAA, but there’s only so many agents you can take in one day.”

The faithful will no doubt flock back to the Polo Lounge in the landmark pink Beverly Hills Hotel when the time comes, but the Peninsula will likely keep its following, observers say.

“I think they’re still young enough that you can’t call (the Peninsula) legendary,” Sherwin says. “It’s still a spot that, among the knowledgeable people in town, is a place to stay. The hotel still has to make a mark for itself in terms of the long run, but they’re certainly off on a strong foot.”