For Sheens, Community Service Is a Family Affair

This week actor Charlie Sheen was seen at Bread and Roses, a restaurant that serves free meals to the homeless. Although the young actor brought along an entourage of friends to serve orange juice and coffee, he kept a low profile.

Sheen and his father, Martin Sheen, appear frequently at the Bread and Roses to cook and serve meals and to converse with the homeless clients, according to the restaurant’s staff. Apparently, Sheen the Younger is more reticent than Sheen the Elder about discussing his community service work.

“Martin Sheen would have been shaking the reporter’s hand right now,” said one staffer as the younger Sheen hid in the kitchen, waiting for the reporter to leave the restaurant.

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OLIVE BRANCH POLITICS: Republican congressional candidate Richard Sybert is still having a tough time with Bob Hammer--even after beating the runner-up by nearly a 3-1 margin in June’s GOP primary.

Hammer said earlier this month that he would not back Sybert’s bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) because of the way the former senior aide to Gov. Pete Wilson roughed him up during the GOP primary. The campaign included attacks that questioned Hammer’s credentials as a businessman and accusations that he was an indifferent citizen for failing to vote in several elections.

But Sybert refused to take no for an answer, and in a letter this week he mounted a fresh offensive to win Hammer over. In a personal missive, Sybert said it was his intention to appoint Hammer to the Ventura County Republican Central Committee. Under party rules, Sybert is an ex-officio member of the committee and, beyond that, may name an alternate to serve in his place.

Moreover, Sybert politely warned Hammer that his refusal to endorse him--and his willingness to talk about same to the media--was only helping Beilenson. “You have to know that Mr. Beilenson will use your comments to help himself, and I can’t believe you really want that after everything you said during the primary,” Sybert wrote. “Let’s meet over breakfast or lunch,” the nominee offered.

But Hammer was unmoved. Thanks for the Central Committee offer, Hammer replied later in the week in a letter of his own. But, he added, his plans don’t include getting deeply involved in party affairs, at least for the time being.

“I’m trying to earn a living again,” Hammer told The Times, repeating his unwillingness to back Sybert.

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PEDAL PUSHERS: Cops’ calf muscles will be challenged in West Hollywood Tuesday at the National Night Out, a yearly event observed nationwide that highlights the fight against neighborhood crime.

Sheriff’s deputies are scheduled to race up the steep Horn Avenue hill in a quest for glory--and, it turns out, a free dinner at Spago. Second prize is lunch at Mirabelle restaurant.

The bike race, organized by Sibyl Zaden, a resident who is active in the Neighborhood Watch program and the U.S. Cycling Federation, was created to publicize the Sheriff’s Department’s local bike patrol.

“I thought it would be a good way of introducing the bicycle patrol to the neighborhood,” Zaden said. “And we wanted to make this year’s National Night Out special.”