Britain’s Prince Andrew Charms Southland Crowds

For a prince, he really is kind of charming.

Britain’s Duke of York, Prince Andrew, managed Thursday to cast a spell over crowds from Beverly Hills to Willowbrook as he began a three-day Los Angeles visit aimed at expanding business and technology links between his country and the United States.

Andrew smilingly snipped a grand-opening ribbon for a Beverly Hills fiber-optics executive who welcomed him by explaining that his company has the power to pull the plug on British embassy communication hookups worldwide.

He traipsed through the partially built Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles without so much as grimacing at the oddly shaped auditorium that architect Frank Gehry was proudly showing off.

And he good-naturedly bantered with high school students cutting paper outlines of continents for a lesson on plate tectonics in one of the area’s poorest neighborhoods--and handed their principal a $6,000 donation from the British government for a U.S. government-sponsored science project.

Andrew got a standing ovation from 700 business and community leaders attending a luncheon meeting of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. He drew rave reviews from teenagers at the King-Drew Magnet High School.

“He doesn’t have to go back to England. He can stay right here,” said an excited Karena Ward, a 17-year-old senior at the medical and science magnet school whom Andrew helped with a mapping project involving a classroom globe.

The prince kept a stiff upper lip throughout the day, which included a visit to the Seismology and Gravitational Wave Lab at Caltech in Pasadena--which officials said is linked to the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

He didn’t say a word when Sweet Alice Harris, a longtime community activist and a fixture in South-Central Los Angeles, jumped into his elevator and commandeered it on the Drew-King school’s second floor. Andrew wanted to go to the fourth floor. Sweet Alice wanted to go to the first floor. She won.

“Oh good, we’re going down,” she said. “The Lord always looks after me.”

He also didn’t say anything when Gary Winnick reminded him that Global Crossing Ltd., the international fiber-optics firm he founded three years ago, now holds the contract for 240 British government facilities around the world.

Winnick explained that he meets heads of state and reminds them to “behave yourself or you might not have any communication services.”

Andrew complimented Winnick on the oversized scissors he was handed to cut the grand-opening ribbon to the new Global Crossings Plaza office complex.

“They’ve been specially oiled,” Andrew said of the scissors. “Now the real test is to see if this door works.”

The prince’s visit to the Disney Hall construction site was well-oiled, too. Safety goggles and hard hats were waiting for him and a clutch of local officials that included Mayor Richard Riordan and County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Workers said Andrew was the first major celebrity to set foot in the place, slowly taking shape inside a steel skeleton atop Bunker Hill.

“So far, we haven’t had many big shots,” said construction inspector Jim Silsbee. “But we expect there will be more as we get farther along.”

Andrew plugged British technology during his noon talk before a joint gathering of the World Affairs Council and the British American Business Council. He also did some light-hearted bragging about his country’s entertainment industry--reminding the crowd that a Brit is known as the father of the motion picture.

He said the latest statistics suggest that California would rank sixth economically if it were an independent country. “Fortunately, Great Britain is fourth on that list,” he said to laughter from the crowd.

British officials said Andrew is scheduled to visit the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base and attend a Getty Center exhibition of Raphael drawings tonight.

On Saturday, he will present the British Academy of Film & Television Arts Britannia Award to filmmaker Steven Spielberg.

On Thursday, though, Andrew’s attention was on King-Drew Magnet High School senior Melo Yap, 16, who was talking about her summer spent studying at Cambridge University. “I could tell something was special about you,” he said.

Hugo Aceves, 16, said he was surprised that the prince stopped to talk about rock formations with him.

“He seemed like a normal guy from across the street,” Hugo said.