Dole, Supporters Breakfast in Newport Beach : Politics: The senator’s assault on Hollywood goes unmentioned at $1,000-a-plate event.

On the day national headlines proclaimed his attack on the movie and record business, Sen. Bob Dole held a private fund-raising breakfast with supporters of his presidential campaign Thursday.

“It was close friends of the senator,” Lincoln Club President Doy Henley said in an interview outside the meeting room. “It was designed to be a bit exclusive, a one-on-one . . . not a sheer numbers thing.”

The closed-door, $1,000-per-plate affair at the Sutton Place Hotel, one stop on a western states fund-raising swing for the 71-year-old Kansas Republican, raised more than $75,000 for Dole’s campaign.

Before, during and after the breakfast, Dole campaign officials fielded a host of requests from the national media for interviews about his Wednesday night Century City speech. In it, the Senate majority leader condemned Hollywood for debasing the nation’s culture with programming, movies and records awash in violence and sex.

A campaign spokesman said Dole had to turn down a request to appear on ABC’s “Nightline” program because of “scheduling conflicts.”

Inside, however, the breakfast was “more like a conversation with friends,” said one attendee. “There was not a word about [the previous night’s speech] at the breakfast.”

The senator was introduced by Les McCraw, chief executive officer of Fluor Corp.

Dole “made some favorable remarks about other Republican candidates,” said David Schwarz, a lawyer with the firm of Irell & Manella, adding that he told the group they “should never underestimate [President Clinton’s] abilities. He loves politics and is a fierce competitor.”

A number of attendees said they supported Dole but also felt an allegiance to Gov. Pete Wilson. Tom Malcolm, who attended as a guest of former federal Judge Layn R. Phillips, said “I did not go because I am a front-line supporter of Dole. But if Wilson falters, he is probably my guy.”

Toward the end of the fund-raiser, Dole introduced U.S. Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and Gary A. Franks (R-Conn.). Both spoke briefly.