Still a ‘Brother’ Keeper

In what has become almost an annual rite of summer, a contestant on CBS’ “Big Brother” has been revealed to have a rap sheet.

Web site The Smoking Gun, www.thesmokinggun.com, reported that Chiara Berti, 25, was arrested in May on charges of driving under the influence and driving without a license. She is only the latest contestant on the show--which sequesters a dozen people in a house and tapes their every action, gradually eliminating them until a $500,000 winner is chosen--to be exposed in this fashion. Last year, Justin Sebik, evicted after holding a knife to another contestant’s throat, was found to have had several assault charges against him. Another contestant, it was later learned, had been arrested in a vehicular manslaughter case, and a fourth for allegedly trespassing on the Warner Bros. lot and trying to secure unauthorized photos of the movie “Batman & Robin.”

Perhaps that history explains why CBS has become a trifle blase about such revelations, though the network did say that in this case, it was aware of Berti’s arrest and was told that she was dealing with the matter. The Smoking Gun quotes her attorney as saying that she is “very likely to settle.”

“On the brighter side, she won’t be doing any driving in the house,” said CBS spokesman Chris Ender.

Charity’s Foot Soldier

It was an unusual sight: a celebrity skipping the valet service and arriving at the party in his honor--on foot.

Wearing a burgundy suit, and taking long strides in white trainers from his own label, Phat Farm, Russell Simmons, who’d parked at the nearby home of a friend, led his five-person entourage uphill along Green Acres Drive in Beverly Hills.

The founder of Def Jam Records, and chief executive of Rush Communications, he was among the first guests to arrive at supermarket mogul Ron Burkle’s fabled estate, Green Acres, where Mary Parent and Scott Stuber, of Universal Pictures, were being honored with Simmons, and Chrysalis, a nonprofit organization, was raising funds to help the poor and homeless. The weekend event was dubbed the Butterfly Ball.

Big names and open pocketbooks were plentiful, but some guests held tight to their thoughts. Nicolas Cage arrived alone, posed for photos, but didn’t talk. And Anthony Hopkins paused only to say, “I’m just here to lend support.”

Simmons, by comparison, was quite chatty.

In bad times, “the first thing to go is services to the poor,” Simmons said, as he stood near the rose garden, surrounded by friends and well-wishers. “A measurement of a good society is how we treat poor people.”

(By that standard, the celebrities and other guests did quite well. The $500-a-plate dinner raised $350,000 for Chrysalis.)

Owen Wilson arrived. So, what was his involvement with the charity?

“Ron just asked me to come down,” Wilson said. “I’m learning a lot as the night goes on. It’s to help the homeless.”

Would he be writing a check? “I’ll try to carry my load,” he said. “I don’t want to disappoint anyone.”

A Powerful Mix

Scores of women, nearly all of them aspiring to work in the film industry, crowded the lobby of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theater Friday night to exchange business cards and sip martinis. They came to this “power mixer” to hear the advice of women who inspired them--producer Meg LeFauve, who’s Jodie Foster’s business partner, Academy Award-winning sound editor Teri Dorman and “Minority Report” producer Bonnie Curtis, among others.

One of the event sponsors, filmmaker and author Helena Lumme, urged a visitor to read her new coffee table book “Great Women of Film” (Billboard Books, 2002). The book features 30 influential women in the film industry--Foster, Susan Sarandon and Joan Allen among them--and recounts the strategies that led to their success. “When I finished ‘The Accused,’ I thought I had done a really bad job,” says Foster in the book. “[Ultimately] I used the Academy Award clout from [that film] to get a job directing.” Allen explains the importance of self-confidence. “I’d be the first to admit that I wouldn’t work with a director who made me feel insecure for whatever reasons, intentional or not.” For Sarandon, acting isn’t something that must be taught. “I didn’t have any training in acting,” she says. “I don’t think you need that, you need life training to survive as an actor. Anybody can act.”

Those were comforting words for the women in the lobby, which buzzed with a thousand job pitches and introductions. Women were connecting, and promises of career help were being offered. The evening was just beginning, but Lumme was on her way to her goal of creating a forum where “women could focus on getting more women into the business.”

Sightings

On Thursday night, Matthew Perry celebrating his Emmy nomination with friends at a private party at Tangiers in Los Feliz ... in Silver Lake, Shannyn Sossamon playing a video game at Spaceland.

Times staff writer Brian Lowry contributed to this report. City of Angles runs Tuesday and Friday. Email: angles@latimes.com