A self-described "multitasker," Norma Zager has a knack for muckraking and an unyielding ability to entertain.

Most recently she has added the title of author to her repertoire. Pelican Publishing's October release of Erin Brockovich and the Beverly Hills Greenscam has opened a new realm of possibilities, said the former Beverly Hills Courier editor who was also a nationally touring and televised comic.

In 2003, Zager was at the helm of the Courier when crusading environmentalist Erin Brockovich came to town wielding soil samples from the campus of Beverly Hills High School. Brockovich and company filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that pollution from an old oil well on school grounds caused numerous cancers in former students and residents over 30 years. Here the seeds were sown for what would become Zager's 272-page tome chronicling one of Beverly Hills' most controversial episodes.

"Erin actually snuck onto the high school campus to get the samples. That was in November 2002," she said. "In February 2003 they announced on the local CBS affiliate that there was an excess of cancers at Beverly Hills High. It was the first anybody had heard of it, and it was during sweeps week, so they obviously thought that waiting for sweeps week to make the announcement was more important than the health, safety and welfare of children who they alleged were in such dangerous conditions."

For the next four years, Zager would go on to relentlessly report on the lawsuit's snail-pace progress, resulting in awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for 2003's "Journalist of the Year" and "Best Investigative Reporter" in addition to favorable features in the Wall Street Journal and Columbia Journalism Review.

"There were a lot of plaintiffs, almost a thousand, who signed up for the lawsuit," Zager said. "It was a very difficult time for the city. People were very frightened. They didn't know if it was true or if it wasn't true, if [Brockovich's] claims had any veracity or not."

As Zager established her credibility with the journalism community, a slew of reporters and editors began contacting her for advice on how to deal with a Brockovich story.

"My reporting got national attention so I would get a lot of phone calls from around the country, other newspapers asking me questions like 'Erin is in town, this and that,' " Zager said. "Then a publisher contacted me and asked if I would like to do a book about the lawsuit. I said I'd love to but I have to wait until it's over, and these things take years. Finally in 2007 it was resolved—at least Beverly Hills' part of the lawsuit was resolved in court—which is when I felt I could sit down and finally write the book."

When the suit against the Beverly Hills School District and oil company Venoco Inc. was found to have no merit in 2007 due to flawed scientific claims, the Brockovich legal team had to reimburse defendants $450,000 for four years of court costs and expenses. Zager wasn't sure whether this was the first time Brockovich had lost a case, but said the litigious environmentalist's court losses don't receive much news coverage.

"She is not always successful by a long shot, but those cases don't get publicized," Zager said. "But in Beverly Hills, despite the fact there was no evidence, despite that when they tested there were no dangerous levels, for some reason [the lawsuit] proceeded. It seemed to make its way into court, and [Brockovich] pursued it because Beverly Hills was an opportunity to make a grandstand effort."

Instead of long, costly legal battles that often result in a financial payoff without an admission of guilt or confirmation of the truth, Zager advised communities dealing with environmental concerns to channel the power of local governments.

"In the book I recommend most communities that are confronted with potential polluting corporations should have their city council purchase a benzene monitor that costs $2,000 nowadays and have it in the community," Zager said. "Then they should have an environmental liaison who reports back to the city council and the school board. It could be a PTA group for the environment that is formed to make sure schools are safe, and others to make sure that the air quality in your city is safe, and the water, and that nobody is polluting."

If a problem is discovered, "it's very easy" to deal with, Zager said.

"There are government agencies you can call immediately who will come out and examine what's going on," she said. "That, to me, is the way that this should be handled. It should have been handled that way in Beverly Hills."

Lawyers shouldn't be the first option for dealing with environmental issues, said Zager, citing the lengthy amount of time that trials take and the fact that court decisions often suppress the full truth from the public record.

"Unfortunately now, the tragedy of Beverly Hills is, we'll never know the truth," she said. "We'll never know if for all those years that oil well was there, whether it actually was a polluter. We'll never know if it was harming children, we'll never know anything now."

Currently a West Hollywood resident, Zager moved to Los Angeles from Michigan in 1993. She was born in Bloomfield, grew up in the Detroit area and graduated from Wayne State University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

While raising her two children, Zager did a lot of freelance writing. In 1984 she read a classified ad from comedian Joan Rivers seeking freelance jokes.

"So I wrote some jokes," Zager said. "I figured, 'What the hell,' and sure enough, she bought them. It was kind of funny because she only paid $10 a joke. I told my brother and he said, 'What are you, stupid? Ten dollars a joke? You're funnier than she is. Go do your own jokes.' "

So she did.

"I don't know what possessed me, and 'possessed' is the operative word here, but Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in Royal Oak—Detroit used to have an open mic on Monday night," Zager said. "So I took all the jokes Joan didn't buy and said 'I'm just gonna go and try.' It took me weeks to get my nerve up, and I don't know why in the world I did it. I must have been a latent comic or something—not that I always hadn't been the class clown—but it's a far different cry from getting on a stage. That's totally insane."

Zager said her first venture into the spotlight that night in 1984 at the Comedy Castle didn't seem to go all that smoothly, but she was invited back to try again. On her way out of the club, a young guy in his 20s saw her and remarked, "You were great! You sounded just like my mother!"

At that she decided to hone her stand-up act and eventually attained success as a comedian, appearing regularly on HGTV, ABC, Discovery Channel, HBO, Showtime and Lifetime, and opening for the likes of Garry Shandling, Tim Allen, Chris Rock, Larry Miller, Robin Williams, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart.

After 14 years in the limelight of Hollywood and Las Vegas, Zager gravitated toward a career in community journalism with the Courier. She accepted a reporting job at the paper in 1999 and rose to the editor position after scooping the national media on a story about the death of the estranged mother of syndicated radio talk-show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

"I loved being a community newspaper editor," Zager said. "I love being an advocate for the community, I love being an advocate for the children. I took that role very seriously. In most small towns, and Beverly Hills is a small town, newspaper editors see themselves as an advocate and do enjoy being in that position. I know that I always felt my first responsibility was to inform the community, and I worked really hard to do that."

Zager also enjoys teaching journalism courses at Cal State L.A., though she said budget cutbacks have sidelined her for the time being.

Since the release of Greenscam, Zager has had several book signings, as well as a book release party at Spago. Upcoming Barnes & Noble dates include Jan. 17 at the Westside Pavilion, Jan. 21 in Palm Desert and one at Studio City's Bookstar on Jan. 29.