CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: SHOWMANSHIP WON'T ALWAYS WIN THE DAY.

Byline: Terri Hardy and Dorothy Korber

SOMETIMES the dignified old Capitol resembles the set of a Cecil B. DeMille movie extravaganza, complete with a Cast of Thousands. These colorful ``extras'' churn through the halls and into the hearings, imparting a little pizzazz to a world of gray suits and drab ties.

Last week, looking as if they'd just stepped out of a Kosovo newscast, rows of grim refugees crowded an Assembly hearing room. The women wore headscarves knotted under their chins, the stocky men glared silently during the debate.

Three weeks before, the Capitol was invaded by hundreds of provocatively pierced and dyed young people, striding through the corridors in platform shoes and Birkenstocks, demanding that the establishment pay attention.

Both groups converged in Sacramento for precisely the same reason: To express their feelings on AB 222, Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl's bill that would specifically prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians in California's public schools.

Kuehl, a Democrat who represents part of the San Fernando Valley, told the Assembly Education Committee Wednesday that ``sexual orientation'' needs to join race, creed, color, and gender as a class that is guaranteed equal protection.

Two Northern California teens testified tearfully about the fear and homophobic threats they endured in high school - right under the apathetic noses of their teachers and administrators, they said.

But representatives from the religious right argued that Kuehl's bill would promote a gay agenda in the schools and limit the rights of those who believe homosexuality is a sin. Those rows of refugees - actually evangelical Russian immigrants who live in the Sacramento area - were rounded up by the Traditional Values Coalition to add weight to these arguments.

``This is the establishment of a special class of protection for a behavior-based lifestyle,'' said the Rev. Louis Sheldon of the coalition.

In the end, the armies of extras proved irrelevant. Kuehl prevailed, with the Education Committee voting 10-7 to pass her bill on to the Appropriations Committee.

Big Mac Attack

Remember those tricky ``word'' problems in your school math textbook? All those problems about the speed of trains and the price of butter? Generic trains and generic butter, we'll bet.

Times have changed, and a new sixth-grade textbook from Glencoe McGraw-Hill inserts name-brand references into virtually every problem:

``What is your favorite color of M&M's?'' ``Will is saving his allowance to buy a pair of Nike shoes that cost $68.25.'' ``Eight out of ten dentists prefer Crest.'' ``The diameter of an Oreo cookie is 1.75 inches long.''

The publisher says it uses actual brand names simply to make the problems seem more relevant and interesting, and that it is paid nothing to mention, for example, Oreo instead of Hydrox. But Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, D-San Rafael, is outraged nonetheless.

Her bill, AB 116, would clamp down on instructional materials that give unnecessary exposure to commercial brands, products or logos. ``Students are a captive audience and should not be subjected to the promotion of specific products,'' she told her fellow Education Committee members last week.

They agreed, passing the bill on to the Appropriations Committee.

Big GOP Attack

Just when you think the Republicans have put their disastrous past year behind them, they rise up and implode all over again.

A few weeks ago, Assembly Minority Leader Rod Pacheco of Riverside staved off an overthrow by his GOP colleagues. After a bitter closed-door argument, the Republicans emerged, declaring renewed unity.

The peace was short-lived. This week the bombastic Pacheco was replaced by Assemblyman Scott Baugh, R-Huntington Beach, who was recently cleared of criminal election fraud charges. Hearing the news, Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, rushed to Baugh's office to give him one of his faImous hugs.