BEYOND FIDEL: It won’t have the controversy...

BEYOND FIDEL: It won’t have the controversy of President Clinton snubbing Fidel Castro. But at Chapman University tonight, the local United Nations Assn. chapter will celebrate the U.N.’s 50th birthday with a campus event on women’s issues. Speaking will be four professional women who attended the women’s conference in China. . . . That conference, says Donald Will, one of the campus organizers, “was the culmination of several decades of work related to women’s issues by the U.N.”

TO THE SOURCE: Orange County’s Little Saigon continues to be a national focal point on diversity issues. ABC-TV’s Friday night news show, “20/20,” recently asked Little Saigon educators, community leaders and business people their views on pending congressional bills to eliminate bilingual education in public schools. Their answer: Vigorous opposition. . . . The program (Channel 7, 10 p.m.) will air next month.

NO FANTASY: Ricardo Montalban was admired by Latinos for his leading movie roles long before he got rich off TV’s “Fantasy Island.” But there’s another reason that Latin American Voters of America will honor Montalban at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana on Nov. 4. . . . It’s a fund-raiser to help the group try to register Latino voters. And Montalban has been a major spokesman for that cause. . . . Says the actor: “Democracy works best when everyone votes.”

SAMSON & DELILAH? Samson, the wayward spa-hopping bear, may get some company by the time his new quarters are ready at the Orange County Zoo in a few weeks--a girlfriend. The 500-pound bear was sent to the zoo after he was seen on TV wandering into neighbors’ back-yard pools near his home in the Angeles National Forest. . . . Zoo officials are convinced a female companion would be good for Samson, so the search is on. . . . But zoo director Forrest deSpain has one worry: Samson, 15, is a lifelong bachelor. Would he be too set in his ways--or too much a rogue--to settle down with a mate?