Santa Monicans Experience Just a Touch of the Future

The future is slouching ever closer. And in Santa Monica, the city’s brave new hop onto the information superhighway includes bus routes and library hours.

The list isn’t exactly endless, but, hey, it’s a pilot program, what do you want for free?

Actually, it’s sort of fun. What you do is touch the screen of a special kiosk to show what you want, and a live-action guide leads you through questions until you get what you need--or lose interest.

Two of the gizmos, known as multimedia touch screen kiosks, were installed last week--one on the Third Street Promenade and the other outside the library’s main branch.

Plans call for such sites around the county to include features such as the ability to pay library fines and traffic tickets--if that’s your idea of a good time.

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WHO, ME?: The “L-word” was used in an 11th-hour mailer last week on behalf of a guy who might be described as kinda liberal himself--Los Angeles City Council candidate Mike Feuer. And it wasn’t meant as a compliment.

In a letter to 4,500 Republican male voters in the Westside-Valley district, two LAPD sergeants praised the former legal aid attorney as “the best choice . . . for Republicans who think it is time for new, young leaders to take responsibility for the future of the city.” They went on to describe his 5th District opponents, Roberta Weintraub and Barbara Yaroslavsky, as “two people who are supported by some of the most liberal politicians in the city.” To wit, former Democratic state Sen. David A. Roberti, a Weintraub fan, and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Barbara’s husband.

Asked about the mailer, Feuer replied, “Oh yuck!” He went on: “I did not send this out. I haven’t the faintest idea where this came from.”

Moments later, Feuer consultant Larry Levine called to clear things up. “It went out without Mike having seen it,” Levine said. “We had made a decision not to use that issue. . . . It was a sloppy mistake.”

But Weintraub campaign manager Sue Burnside was having none of it. “I don’t believe for a moment the candidate didn’t know it was sent out,” she said.

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COURTROOM DRAMA: Hamlet had a good idea--”The play’s the thing to catch the conscience of the king.”

But sisters Monica and Rosie Malek-Yonan had nothing that devious in mind when they staged “The Imaginary Invalid” for the sequestered jurors in the O.J. Simpson trial last month. And they also garnered a return gig.

“We were invited by Judge (Lance A.) Ito to come back because the jurors really liked it,” said Monica, the producer. Rosie directed the work and also stars.

Their latest Moliere offering--which will be shown to the jury before opening at Hollywood’s Ivar Theatre--is “A Gentleman of Quality.”

“We’re not going to do anything improper,” Monica said of the performance.