PERFORMERS OFTEN DO BEST IN REAL LIFE.

Byline: ED RAMPELL Local View

``THIS is not a drill! It's happening! Everybody get up!'' was the shouted alarm that woke actress Daryl Hannah and scores of farmers and other supporters around 5 a.m. June 13 as the iron heel of the state stomped America's largest urban farm.

Three hundred-plus LAPD and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies raided the 14-acre South Central Farm to evict 350 mostly Latino and African-American poor families who had grown food at a community garden since 1992, following the Los Angeles riot.

Hannah, who'd been sleeping in a tent on the land that grew avocados, mangos and maize at 41st Street and Alameda, quickly climbed the walnut tree to take her post on a platform perched on the community lookout tree. Farmers below chained themselves to hamper their removals.

``It was very surreal because it was still dark out and we were literally surrounded by many police and sheriff's cars,'' the actress said. ``Helicopters flying overhead. Sparks were flying because they were drilling with a metal saw through chain-link fences. Hundreds of sheriffs in riot gear, with plastic helmets, face guards, body armor, tear-gas shotguns. It almost looked like storm troopers. It seemed very strange and otherworldly.''

It was a scene that could have been directed by Quentin Tarantino, who made the ``Kill Bill'' flicks in which Hannah has appeared.

It took law enforcement hours to evict protesters off the farm, and they didn't get to Hannah's treetop outpost until around noon. ``They brought up a fire department truck and (used) diamond blade saws and devices to get us out of the tree,'' Hannah said. Fellow tree-sitter John Quigley claims that a chain saw ``cut a gash into the tree, while we were in it, endangering lives.''

At least 40 people were arrested, and bulldozers razed many of the plots of crops.

The farm has been the subject of disputed land deals for 14 years involving the city of L.A. and developer Ralph Horowitz. A deal had been under way for purchasing the land when Horowitz apparently had law enforcement act on a court order to clear his property, reportedly to build a warehouse.

Quigley is the veteran tree-sitter who sounded the early morning alarm that alerted the farmers and their supporters to resist the law enforcement onslaught, utilizing techniques of passive resistance.

Hannah believes Horowitz acted because ``he wanted to exact some blood. He's had lots of frustrations'' in his dealings over the years with the farmers and city bureaucracy.

``It was all such a waste of taxpayers' money, so unnecessary. The money was on the table, the deal was there so the developer could get the money he wants. I still feel it's not too late to win this farm,'' Hannah said.

``The only thing we can really offer is to shine some of the attention that's shined on us into a direction that is worthy of it,'' Hannah said. Other notables who came to the farm to show support included actors Martin Sheen and Danny Glover, singers Willie Nelson and Joan Baez, who performed, and noted tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill.

The land struggle at the South Central Farm is a case study in the role celebrities can play in social movements. Sometimes performers' best roles are played off the screen.