This week, we’re holding workshops on the Malibu Civic Center Specific Plan. We’re going to hear about our town’s future. What do we want our town to be? Whom do we want to live here? What do we want it to look like?

Think about the possibility of a town center with small, narrow streets. A limited amount of traffic. Charming little clusters of homes. Small stores around a little town square and park. No tourists. No outsiders. Racial harmony. Friendly neighbors. No homeless. No poverty. No discord. A town where calamity is banished. All sitting on a balmy ocean. And then add the sound of waves lapping at the shore. And in the background, marvelous sunsets.

Sound perfect? Sound like the ideal beachside community? Sound like Malibu?

If you want to know what that kind of community would really be like, don’t waste your time going to the city workshops. Instead, take yourself down to the Malibu Theatre and see a very funny, very disturbing movie, ‘The Truman Show.’

Set in themythical town of Seahaven Island (actually a real seaside town in Florida), the movie is about a make-believe world that’s really a TV set for the world’s highest-rated show, The Truman Show. Jim Carrey plays the star of the TV show, but he doesn’t know it. Everyone in his life is an actor except him, but he doesn’t know it. Everything in his world is controlled, but he doesn’t know it. Whatever he does is followed by 5,000 cameras. He’s totally secure and totally without a life.

The movie is a farce. But how farcical is it really? Look around us. There are lots of Seahaven Islands.

Everywhere you look, there are walled communities. Private police forces. Surveillance cameras. Someone watching to make sure that our lives are protected and isolated from risk. Like Truman, people are afraid to go outside of their walls, and they certainly don’t want anyone else to come in.

Let’s not create a Seahaven Island in the center of Malibu.

I’d like to offer a few proposals.

That we consider some diversity in our community. Age diversity. Income diversity. Racial diversity.

That we get away from the total dependence on the automobile and design a Civic Center where people can live, work, eat, walk, sit at a cafe, go to a movie and maybe a play, and create a town that’s really a town and not a suburb with a few shops for necessities and some overpriced T-shirt shops.

We ought to have a town center with a place for the senior citizens to go and children to play and teen-agers to hang out and the rest of us to just walk around and look. We ought to have a park in the Civic Center.

We ought to have a town center with some way to handle sewage other then septic systems, because it’s become apparent to all of us that in the town center, the septics are all failing. They’re old and tired, and it’s getting too crowded for them to work effectively anymore. We don’t need a scientific study to tell us that. Just follow your nose any weekend afternoon.

In order to get some of these things, we’ve got to let go of the 1940s and the 1950s, when we isolated residential from commercial, got into our cars, separated the ages and ended up with many communities that are sterile, automobile-centered and empty at night.

We’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity coming our way to make our town what we want it to be. Let’s not blow it by opting for some cold, guarded, homogeneous hodgepodge, designed by a committee to try and make everybody happy and in the end probably not pleasing anyone.

Marty Warner seems like your ordinary actor. A life in the business, kids in the business, even a home on the beach. He says he has four kids, the last two are 10 years old. “Twins?” one asks politely. “No. My kids are all adopted,” he answers. Suddenly, he’s no mere mortal.

“Yeah, we’re crazy,” he says, but then adds, “It was the best thing I ever did.”

His daughter Zoe most recently appeared in Malibu writer/director Alice Champlin’s “Random Acts of Evil,” and also appeared on “MAD TV.” “She’s not booking anything lately,” says dad. His elder son, Flynn, 15, has appeared on a series for Nickelodeon. Reno, 12, and Teal, 10, share the family business and the penchant for unusual names.

The kids are home-schooled. “We were running around so much,” says dad of the different schools and sports. He makes sure they have outdoor time: “My idea of the beach used to be lying in bed, listening to it. Then we had kids, and now we’ve got to go out.”

He has been married, “for longer than most people,” to photographer Susan Warner. The family lives in Malibu but keeps an apartment in Hollywood “for the 9 a.m. rehearsal calls.”

Born in Brooklyn, he says, “I was there until I could get on the subway by myself. [My family was] nice, but they weren’t very creative.” He lived in the east village and worked in a bookstore, into which walked Susan. “We talked about how we didn’t have to talk about things,” he reports. They were married six months later.

On Father’s Day, Warner will be starring in “My Client’s a Lunatic.” To prepare for his role as plaintiff’s attorney, he says he has observed attorneys in court. He also says he understands women. “Claudia’s husband in the play didn’t even know why she was making such a big deal. But I was right there from the beginning.

“Growing up in New York helps me with that,” he says. “Meeting all sorts of people, being nice to them, caring.” He terms his wife his best friend and equal.

He won the role thanks to his daughter, Zoe. She was auditioning at The Bitter Truth Theatre for Champlin. Audition notices were posted around the theater. Bitter Truth producer Leslie deBeauvais told him he missed the audition but invited him to the callbacks.

“I’ve never done so many words,” says the actor. “I thrive on film and TV — go in, do it, that’s the end of it. This is mondo words.” Warner is paired with Jillian McWhirter in an alternating cast, appearing every other performance through the play’s run.

He wouldn’t mind being more successful, but not just for the money. “If I had more money,” he says, “I guess I’d adopt more kids.” He does not understand how those with inordinate wealth can say they don’t know how to spend their money. “People should take time off, look for something and give it away,” he says. “I’d like to be able to set that example.”

What would he probably like for Father’s Day? “I’m looking for a really good agent,” he says.

“My Client’s a Lunatic” appears Sundays at 1 p.m., through July 26, at The Bitter Truth Theatre, 11050 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Telephone 818/766-9702.

Goo . . .

Re the human interest story on the front page of your June 11 issue (“Powerless in Paradise” by Kim Devore), Mrs. Booth has managed to park her trailer, her three children and her horse in the middle of what was once the location of a lovely home with a pool and, not mentioned in your article, a panoramic ocean view. This was once a very desirable piece of property.

Mrs. Booth has been there well over the time allotted for a building permit to run its course. From your article, it appears that she has neither the resources nor the intention of building a home on this burnout lot. Yet, without the most basic permit she has been allowed to continue to live there in her trailer with her young children and her animals.

I am writing in support of the city of Malibu. My understanding is that trailer permits in neighborhoods designated for traditionally constructed houses are given to property owners who are in the process of building their homes. Those of us who have built in Malibu know that there are many hoops to jump through but the building regulations established by our city are there for a reason. Ultimately these regulations protect the integrity of our neighborhoods. They protect the safety, health conditions, environment and the investment that homeowners make in their property. No homeowner should be forced to have a trailer parked alongside their home indefinitely. Particularly one that is not meeting the minimum requirements set by our community standards.

I just wonder how the neighborhood in Thousand Oaks where Mrs. Booth used to live in a 6,000 square foot home would feel if she were living in her trailer there today. I even question if Mrs. Booth, would be pleased. Of course, it would not be tolerated by the city of Thousand Oaks. Why should it be acceptable in Malibu!

Keep Malibu A Paradise

We were moved and yet disgusted to read the letter by Rosie the dog. Rosie, you should be giving that animal vigilante lots of licks because in my opinion they may have just saved your life. Would you rather be picked up by a shovel on PCH where you have been splattered by a vehicle, or an animal vigilante (who has devoted their life to animals).

Based on Rosie’s letter, we have come to the overwhelming conclusion that Rosie’s human is really clueless. We regularly stop for animals out on a jaunt. That is because someone who loves them might be looking for them and they are potentially endangered by automobiles. Many of these animals have no identification tags and we are faced with the choice of taking on yet another dog ourselves, delivering them over the hill to the pound where they will be killed if not claimed or adopted, continue to let them roam further endangering their lives, or take them to a local animal vigilante for safe keeping until the owner can be located or the animal can be placed in a loving home.

Regarding Rosie’s puppies, we kindly ask anyone who allows their dog to have puppies, purebred or not, to visit any animal shelter. Walk through and look into the eyes of these precious, loving animals as they make eye contact with you almost piercing your soul. They want a loving home desperately and for each person who passes them by, it brings them closer to an unfortunate end. Tell us if you honestly believe that having your friends adopt your pups instead of one these poor dogs in our overcrowded shelters is the right and humane thing to do. If you still think so, try watching as a confused dog receives an injection that closes their eyes to this world for the last time and there are no more tail wags and licks and smiles. There is also overwhelming evidence that spaying and neutering protects animals from many diseases as well as may prolong their lives!

Rosie, we are very happy that you love your human, but you have a few very important things to teach them. You should not be allowed to wander on your own. You must have ID tags to avoid unfortunate incidents. Post flyers around the area where you live when you are missing. Finally, you should help save the lives of your friends by not having puppies. You and your human should be eternally grateful to the animal vigilante who just may have saved your life and prevented your pups from being orphans. I hope in some way you can understand the plight of those who devote their lives to and love animals.

Jack Anthony and Christie Carr

I would like to congratulate James Digby for being an aware human and not just “poo-pooing” the booming noise he and his wife have been hearing.

I would suggest that Mr. Digby call and write the Coastal Commission regarding this as well as the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division at Point Mugu. I wrote the following letter to Point Mugu which mentions some of the current sound testings they are now doing. I encourage as many people as possible to constantly write, call, e-mail the Navy regarding this, as well as congress people, newspapers, etc.

Oh, and by the way, it is not good for the fish! — or our fragile ecosystem! Thanks for your awareness James Digby — please follow through and try to get others involved!

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division

Point Mugu Sea Range EIS

521 Ninth Street

Point Mugu, Ca. 93042-5001

Attn: Cora Fields

Fax: 805-989-0143

Dear Ms. Fields:

Several weeks ago I wrote and faxed to you protesting the missile testing that was scheduled to take place at various sites in the Point Mugu and San Nicholas island area. I now am writing regarding the U.S. Navy beginning to activate its low frequency active sonar project (LFA) in the same locations!

Perhaps this might give me illusion that it is less menacing, however, according to the Navy’s own research, high intensity sound testing has caused permanent damage to human test subjects. Moreover, these waters are migration paths for whales and other creatures; plus the fact that these tests don’t just stay in one area but travel our oceans for miles and miles. It is an unconscionable act! We all share this planet together — life is cause and effect. The effect of these tests is catastrophic! We all have our function on this planet — think of the consequences in disturbing this balance!

We must protect our earth and the inhabitants of the oceans. As I stated in my last letter, America should be an example to the rest of the world — and protect all species by stopping all such devastating testings! We all live here together — the U.S. Navy is made up of people — please use your own integrity! I feel that we still have the opportunity to enter the 21st century with the balanced wisdom of aware human beings — protecting all the creatures of this planet! We all must protect our oceans, our earth, our universe! Please stop testing now!

Alessandra DeClario, Ph. D.