Making a Match for Election 2000

It’s the political season, all right. “Saturday Night Live” is churning out a campaign spoof nearly every week now, as presidential contenders really begin to get down and dirty in the primary races. There was a particularly unpleasant air to Tuesday’s Republican debates. What’s that smell? Rotten eggs, perhaps?

But the more information I get about the candidates, the less sure I am about whom I will vote for in California’s March 7 primary.

One Internet site, https://www.SelectSmart.com, offers a quiz to help voters make a decision. You simply fill in your preferences on 17 issues, such as abortion, free trade, gun control and school choice. The site spits out the candidate who is right for you.

Before taking the test, I was an avid Al supporter. But according to the quiz results, Bill Bradley is my man, followed by Ralph Nader! Gore was third, scoring only 60 points on the 100-point scale that measures how closely my views jibe with those of the different candidates.

My mother in New York, who has been known to lean to the left despite her pledge to support Mayor Rudy Giuliani because “what he’s done for New York City is just wonderful,” chose David McReynolds, the socialist candidate. Mom, I had no idea!

Now if we could all cast our ballots online, the election process could be over in a matter of minutes.

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Photographer Herb Ritts, film producer Robert Evans and Producers Guild President Thom Mount were among the 100 or so guests who gathered at the Los Angeles Film School the other night for a lecture by Helmut Newton.

The German photographer, who worked for French Vogue for more than 24 years, showed slides of his work to the irreverent audience, who oohed and aahed as he shared his influences and his techniques.

Sex came up a lot, which is understandable since Newton is famous for photographing naked women in every setting imaginable: on Mulholland Drive, in the laundry room of the Chateau Marmont, in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

It was interesting to hear Newton say he has never paid a woman to pose nude. “I think it’s a trust,” he said.

One of his favorite photos is of a leggy model walking down a lamplit street wearing an Yves Saint Laurent fur coat and nothing else.

“It’s every German boy’s fantasy,” he said.

Newton surprised some when he expressed admiration for the paparazzi. As an example of how paparazzi shots have influenced his work, he cited an advertisement for Prada that shows an alligator handbag with its contents spilled, and a woman lying on the floor as if she had just been murdered. (Not sure how many Prada bags the ad helped to sell, but anyway.)

Those who are interested might want to check out his latest book, “Sumo” (Taschen, 2000). On a recent trip to Book Soup, I noticed the 55-pound tome has become a literal door stop for anyone entering the West Hollywood bookstore.

At $1,500, it does come with a plastic stand that converts the book into a small coffee table.

Hey, didn’t Kramer think of that on an episode of “Seinfeld”?

Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.