Quote of the Day

"When the Betty Broderick Story comes on in my house, it's like a religious experience."

Mine, too.

One of my fellow writers said this to me when we first met. My love for him grew tenfold when I heard this. For the Betty Broderick story is the the penultimate Lifetime Television for Women (read: porn for the ladies) movie. It contains all the essential elements, in spades:

1. Has-been tv star. You might get Connie Selleca, or Linda Carter, or Annie Potts, or Tori Spelling if you're lucky (she starred in a close runner up with one of the stupidest titles ever: "Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?" Yes, Tori, you may. Just be sure to wear a condom.).

If you're really lucky, you get Meredith Baxter-Birney, whose talents were SO wasted playing a loving mother on Family Ties. She was born to this role: Loving wife driven to absolute nuttiness due to dumping by husband she supported on his way up the corporate ladder for a 21 year old. Which brings me to the second essential element of the LTFWM...

2. Horribly depressing totally true storyline in which woman a. gets shit kicked out of her figuratively, b. gets shit kicked out of her literally, or c. woman goes nutso and kicks the shit out of others, or d. all of the above. On Lifetime, nobody's having a good life, ever.

3. Godawful acting. See number 1 for reasons why.

Most of these movies should not exist and most women should not be watching them. If you're going to present a sad tale about a woman in the hopes of bringing light to a cause and thereby empowering women everywhere then for god's sake you've got to do a better job, Lifetime! Because I don't like how riveted I become (for all the wrong reasons) when the BB story comes on and I don't like how it makes me laugh.

And yet I love it.