Every story on serial rapist Andrew Luster invariably contains the phrase: "heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune."

Luster is a great-grandson of the late Max Factor -- father of the false eyelash and pioneering makeup artist who worked his magic on starlets of the silver screen. The Russian immigrant then parlayed his golden touch into gold by selling his products to every woman aching to look like a film goddess, which is pretty much every woman.

In my Sunday column, I pointed out that scions of wealthy families often put their inherited riches to work to benefit their communities. But Luster lived like a spoiled trust-fund baby, spending his easily earned dollars on sport fishing and knockout drops.

I suggested in that column that if Luster had served his fellow man, he might not be serving 124 years for sexually assaulting three women he subdued with the date-rape drug.

Lee Quaintance of Oxnard replied to my column with a surprising bit of news.

"If Luster needs a snapshot on how to use inherited wealth, he might have considered the Factor family itself," he said.

Quaintance worked for Max Factor cosmetics as its associate general counsel in the early '70s and until it was sold to tycoon Norton Simon in 1973.

"I would expect they are pained by the fact every Luster story begins with the tag 'Max Factor heir,' " he said.

So is the Max Factor company, which continues to sell its beauty products at big-box stores near you. A pop-up on its Web site advises Andrew Luster has no ties to the company.

"In fact, none of the family has played a role in the company since 1973 or profited from it," the disclaimer reads.

The Factor family has remained silent on the Luster case. But Quaintance is more than willing to speak up for them.

"I found them to be generous and honorable people," said Quaintance, who today directs the nonprofit Beacon Foundation, dedicated to safeguarding Ventura County's coastline.

Lost in the lurid headlines about Luster, he told me, is the fact the money made from purveying the facial foundation was used to start a charitable foundation.

If you want to see just how far the apple fell from the tree, do an Internet search for the Max Factor Family Foundation.

The charity gave away almost $700,000 in 2001, according to Suzanne Coffman, director of communications for GuideStar.org, a nonprofit that posts the giving histories of charities.

In fact, the foundation donated $4 million in 1972 to break ground on Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. It continues to support that institution to this day, recently bankrolling a heart attack prevention campaign.

The foundation, which some family members oversee, gives generously to causes to fight domestic abuse, especially the USC Family Violence Center.

The Factor charity has the vision to fund the Center for the Partially Sighted as well as research on eye diseases that blind the elderly and literacy programs that open the eyes of children.

The foundation is a major donor in the war on cancer, giving to both the City of Hope and the John Wayne Cancer Institute.

One of the state's smallest nonprofits benefits from its generosity. Shoes That Fit of Claremont receives $9,000 a year to provide emergency assistance to underprivileged kids.

"The school year comes around and so many children don't go because they don't have shoes and supplies," said Roni Lomeli, executive director. Factor Foundation money goes toward getting those students well-shod and on the road to learning.

The foundation's most generous yearly contribution, typically around a quarter of a million, goes to the Jewish Federation, a nonsectarian organization that provides services from soup to Nikes to the impoverished, according to Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug, vice president of public relations for the L.A. organization.

The Factor foundation even provided a grant to support chromosomal mapping.

The sad truth is that boilerplate phrase "Max Factor heir" is there because Luster never made a name for himself before he drugged and raped his victims.

-- Colleen Cason's e-mail address is ccason@insidevc.com. Her telephone is 655-5830.