Plagued by news leaks, executives at Apple Computer Inc. produced an in-house film on loose lips for employee viewing. Quicker than you can say
”laptop Macintosh” (another Apple leak of the week), news of the film`s existence was reported in the San Jose Mercury News. Leaked, of course.
MIRACLE NEAR 68TH STREET Over in the Big Apple, Gary Kolb isn`t $2,000 poorer. Kolb, 38, a Manhattan marketing consultant, lost his wallet soon after withdrawing money for a vacation. Several hours later, beyond frantic and well into forlorn, Kolb returned home to inform his wife. Good news! On his answering machine was a message that the wallet had been found on Lexington Avenue near 68th Street by visiting students from upstate Cincinnatus` Central School. ”We had come from the Metropolitan Museum, going to Bloomingdale`s,” said school librarian Sally Swisher. ”There it was, in the street. One student picked up the wallet, and others picked up the credit cards.” After a few minutes of conscience-raising, all 23 agreed that honesty is the best policy. Grateful, Kolk is sending $500 to the school.
YES, I`M GERALDO The good news in New Haven, Conn., is that Geraldo is alive and well. The bad news is that he has some explaining to do. Geraldo Garcia, 16, a high school honors student, had been missing for five days when a public defender saw his photograph in a television news broadcast and realized it was a client-who was in jail charged with car theft. Seems that young Geraldo, who had no arrest record and lacked identification, told police his surname was . . . Rivera. For some reason, they didn`t believe him.
A COMMERCIAL MESSAGE ”This is as good as it gets,” said an enthusiastic Jeffrey Zelikson.
”It`s like that commercial on TV where they`re drinking beer and the sun is setting.” Somehow another picture comes to mind. Zelikson, a director of toxic waste management for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, was toasting a legal settlement in Los Angeles in which 116 companies agreed to spend $66 million to clean up a toxic dump in Monterey Park instead of tying the issue up for years in litigation.
`ART IS . . . WHAT ISN`T` The howling in Los Angeles isn`t about toxic wastes but the winning design of a freeway monument that supposedly will challenge New York`s Statue of Liberty for coastal inspiration. Called ”Clouds of Steel,” the privately funded artistic conglomeration of twisted metal sounds more like a candidate for acid rain. ”Looks like a freeway that just blew up, or after an earthquake,” sneered City Councilwoman Gloria Molina, who doesn`t want it straddling the Hollywood Freeway. ”I think it will be a terrible hazard,”
said Councilman Ernani Bernardi, worried about anguished motorists crashing. It probably doesn`t help matters that many panel members who chose ”Clouds of Steel” never have been to Los Angeles, nor that it was fashioned by two New York architects. (Former Gov. Edmund Brown Jr., possibly intending a compliment, observed, ”People are always laughing at innovation. Art is what isn`t.”) Like the State of Illinois Center?
`MOUSETRAP` SPRINGS AHEAD An award for longevity certainly is due for ”Mousetrap,” the Agatha Christie thriller that has played nonstop in London for 36 years-through nine U.S. presidents and eight British prime ministers. Its 15,000th performance occurs Friday. ”This play is like Dundee cake, which has the same recipe for 100 years. You may change the way it`s cooked, but you don`t change the ingredients,” said Producer Peter Saunders.