COUPLE SUES PSYCHIC NETWORK, HOST WILLIAMS OVER INFOMERCIAL.

Byline: Janet Gilmore Daily News Staff Writer

The operators of the Psychic Readers Network and its host Billy Dee Williams probably should have seen it coming.

They probably should have known that their futures held a lawsuit, filed by a former Granada Hills couple upset by a Psychic Readers Network's infomercial.

It features a man and his daughter who claim that their apartment was destroyed in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake - and that they had survived the ordeal thanks to their psychic friends on the network.

Rocco and Andina Maramonte say that just isn't the case. So they and the building's owner sued the network and Williams in May, and a hearing was held this week in Los Angeles Superior Court.

According to the Maramontes' suit, they were the occupants of the Blucher Avenue apartment, and they survived the earthquake - not because of some psychics.

What's going on?

Williams' manager, Shelly Berger, isn't sure, but he contends it's the Maramontes who are mistaken and their lawsuit is groundless.

``I know there can be no basis to it. I just know it. Maybe I'm clairvoyant,'' Berger said.

``I don't know who these people are,'' Berger said. ``There are people who, I guess, get desperate or want to be in the limelight.''

By the way, Berger pointed out, Williams is merely the host of the show and has nothing to do with the production of its infomercials.

The Maramontes and their attorney could not be reached for comment. But their lawsuit contends that they lived at the Granada Hills apartment, not the actors who are featured in the commercial.

And they were inside the apartment when the 1994 quake hit, dropping their quarters two stories onto a garage.

``The person in the film did not live within said unit and certainly did not live with his young daughter in the unit, whom the film indicates was saved as a result of the adult individual's consultation with defendant PRN,'' the suit says.

For the Maramontes, the lawsuit asserts, living through the quake was bad enough; it left them injured and emotionally shaken. Stumbling onto the Psychic Readers infomercial two years later only compounded the problem.

Over and over, on broadcast after broadcast, images of the quake-ravaged apartment pushes the Maramontes to relive the experience.

The building owners contend in the suit that the infomercial amounts to slander and has hurt their ability to market the now-repaired Blucher Avenue apartment.