Mouthier than the Divine Miss M? Michele Lee sure gives it a shot in Scandalous Me. A feature film starring Bette Midler as the late, outrageous novelist Jacqueline Susann is due to be released next fall, but Lee beats Midler to the punch with her histrionics in this TV biopic. Lest there be any doubt that Susann lived life to the fullest before dying of cancer in 1974, Lee yells, weeps and laughs really hard for two hours. "You're out of control! You're scaring me!" says Peter Riegert as Susann's husband, producer-publicist Irving Mansfield. The man speaks for us.
The Jacqueline Susann of Scandalous Me is determined to become a big deal in popular culture despite her lack of what is generally defined as talent. After failing as an actress, she decides to write books capitalizing on her rich experience as a nonstop partygoer, showbiz hanger-on and pill-popper. Although a young editor (Kevin Hicks) describes her fiction as "unpublishable trash," the tirelessly self-promoting Susann turns herself into the bestselling author of Valley of the Dolls and The Love Machine, with a little help from cheerfully low-brow publisher Bernard Geis (James Farentino, Lee's ex-husband) and assorted friends with a strange need to serve her ego.
In no way are we making light of the tragedies and traumas in Susann's life—her cancer, her son's mental illness, her difficult relationship with her artist father (Kenneth Welsh)—but they do provide Lee with a good excuse to overact. Meanwhile, Riegert is stuck with the role of the put-upon but inexplicably devoted spouse (essentially the part he played opposite Midler in the 1993 TV remake of Gypsy). On the rare occasions when Mansfield speaks up to Susann, she gives him an earful and then some. "What do you want?" he asks, daring to raise his voice slightly. "Respect!" she screams. "And love! I want people to love me! I want my name written in a thousand lights across the sky!" Now that'll make a guy sorry he opened his mouth.
Bottom Line: Scandalously overdone
Syndicated (check local listings)
Next to actually having a social life, there's nothing better than listening to people on the tube recount the experience of going out with somebody new. If a first date sounds bad, you can slouch on the couch and gloat. If it sounds hot, you can yelp salaciously as the studio audiences do on these nationally syndicated shows (seen back-to-back in many cities).
Love Connection is a revival of the series that was produced from 1983 to 1994. Chuck Woolery's successor as host is pleasant Pat Bullard, who's too slow with his few quips. The emcee's main job is to lead the guest politely through a description of what happened after he or she picked a date from three contestants glimpsed on tape. The selected contestant joins in the postmortem, and the real fun comes when male and female blame each other for a lousy time. But even for conflict fans, the new Change of Heart may go too far. First, a man and a woman who have been dating for months express disenchantment. Then we hear what happened when each tried going out with someone new (as arranged by the show). Host Chris Jagger stirs the pot by soliciting comparisons of physical attributes, kissing techniques, etc. Finally, the original couple vote on whether to stay together or have a "change of heart." If more couples seem to choose the status quo, maybe it's to spite Jagger for his smirky provocations.
Bottom Line: Suitable for a fling but not a lasting relationship
NBC (Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m. ET)
Show of the week
Its ratings have been middling at best. Its strongest cast member, Phil Hartman, was slain last May. Yet this sitcom set at a New York City radio station remains on the air after more than 3½ years. Does NewsRadio deserve to be a survivor? Based on its performance so far this season, the answer is yes.
The Hartman character, pompous anchorman Bill McNeal, has been replaced by Max Lewis, a radio gypsy played by the late actor's old friend (and Saturday Night Live cohort) Jon Lovitz. While Hartman's comic mastery is sorely missed, Lovitz has earned his share of laughs with familiar tics and offbeat timing. We treasure the memory of Max's incomprehension ("All what? How often?") when news director Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) explained WNYX's "all news, all the time" format. Things got fairly outlandish this fall with a three-parter in which station owner Jimmy James (Stephen Root) stood accused of being fabled '70s skyjacker D.B. Cooper and resisted a power play by corporate shark Johnny Johnson (a fine guest-star turn by Patrick Warburton, formerly Seinfeld's Puddy). But we've come to appreciate the primary source of this show's staying power: Foley's not-quite-straight-faced reactions to the craziness around him.
Bottom Line: Still on the right frequency
HBO (Tues., Dec. 8, 10 p.m. ET)
A rare combination of speed, grace and power, Sugar Ray Robinson had a boxing style that caused observers to reach high for the fitting non-sports analogy. In this well-made documentary, interviewee Woody Allen calls Robinson the William Shakespeare of his field. But as is suggested by the hour-long film's subtitle, The Bright Lights and Dark Shadows of a Champion, Robinson was not a winner in all phases of life. He was an abusive husband; a neglectful father; a failed entertainer foolish enough to think he could dance as well on a stage as he could in the ring. Though a canny negotiator and enterprising businessman, he squandered his money and felt compelled to fight far beyond his prime. In a state of what one associate calls "premature senility," he died in 1989 at 67. Though unstinting in its praise of Robinson the athlete, the film sees past the fast hands and fancy footwork to the human failings. Add the evocative original music of Wynton Marsalis, and you have a vivid portrait of an elusive but unforgettable sports figure.
Bottom Line: Boxing bio's in top shape
Showtime (Sun., Dec. 6, 9 p.m. ET)
There's a word for this British film: tearjerker. And it qualifies as a good cry part of the way. Brenda Blethyn (Secrets & Lies) and Julie Walters (Educating Rita) skillfully portray sisters-in-law, best friends and factory coworkers who split the take when Blethyn wins 100,000 pounds in a national bingo game. The feisty Walters slams out of her empty marriage and tells off her officious boss. Blethyn is quickly confronted with a recurrence of the cancer she thought was behind her. Where does Girls' Night go from here? Unfortunately, it abandons its strength—a close observation of English small-town life, with its mix of desperation and humor—and takes the principals on an impulsive trip to Las Vegas, where they chance to meet a grizzled but handsome cowboy and Vietnam vet (Kris Kristofferson) who offers a little wisdom ("Take each day as it comes") and the possibility of love. This character is so phony we could weep.
Bottom Line: Not worth using three hankies
>Sunday, Dec. 6 THE CHRISTMAS WISH CBS (9 p.m. ET) Nudged by grandma Debbie Reynolds, Neil Patrick Harris gets some family feeling in this TV movie.
Monday, Dec. 7 TONY BENNETT: LIVE BY REQUEST A&E (9 p.m. ET) Want to hear "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"? Bet Tony will oblige.
Tuesday, Dec. 8 FELICITY The WB (9 p.m. ET) Don't think dorm life is dull. Felicity's getting closer to that concerned resident assistant.
Wednesday, Dec. 9 PARTY OF FIVE FOX (9 p.m. ET) Even the IRS plays Santa once in a while. Bailey gets a big tax refund and goes on a spending spree.
Thursday, Dec. 10 ER NBC (10 p.m. ET) It's the megahit's 100th episode, so will 100 percent of America watch?
Friday, Dec. 11 FROSTY THE SNOWMAN CBS (8 p.m. ET) Quick, before he melts: The animated favorite is back. Followed at 8:30 by Frosty Returns.
Saturday, Dec. 12 SWITCHBACK HBO (8 p.m. ET) Relentless FBI man Dennis Quaid stalks a serial killer in this 1997 movie costarring Danny Glover.
>Kellie Martin
Kellie Martin's Yale dean was a little baffled when Martin informed him she had to withdraw from the university because of ER. " 'You're working in the E.R.?' " Martin, 23, recalls him asking. "I said, 'No, I'm doing the TV show ER.' And he gave me a blank stare."
Martin has been perfecting some vacant looks of her own this season as Lucy, the hapless medical student under Dr. Carter's (Noah Wyle) tutelage. Martin quickly realized that her past roles as Becca on Life Goes On and even 1997's short-lived ER clone, Crisis Center, had not prepared her for the series' signature rapid-fire medical jargon. "I'm One-Take Kellie," says Martin, recalling one recent episode. "And it took One-Take Kellie 12 takes to say 'renal vein thrombosis!' "
Martin lives in L.A. and travels to New York City to visit boyfriend Keith Christian, 24, a law student. After ER she plans to complete her art history major at Yale; for now, she's content to study the art of administering an intravenous drip on the ER set. "I've never done one on a real person," she admits. "But if I was on a deserted island, had a medical kit, and someone needed an IV, well...."
- Contributors:
- Paula Yoo.
VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE
Heartbreak & Hope
After Jaycee Dugard's rescue, a look at the cases of six young people who went missing in 2009
