If your knowledge of the Pulitzer family dynasty is fuzzy at best, this TV-made dramatization of factual events won't give you any additional clues. Perry King plays wealthy bachelor Herbert "Peter" Pulitzer from Palm Beach, Florida; he's got a boat, a plane, a luscious spread near the ocean, a flirtatious daughter who looks like a fashion model, and a year-round tan. We don't learn much about his background or his friends (or his ex-wife, whom we meet on the fly--and who seems like just another society snob). For these reasons, it is doubly perplexing that a 20-year-old girl from humble means named Roxanne (Chynna Phillips), employed at an insurance office, would even turn this seasoned millionaire's head. Alas, he falls madly in love with her (we presume) and they marry despite his reluctance to have more kids. Naïve as Roxanne is, she's just as apt as her husband to have an adventurous sexual side, along with the usual childish fits of jealousy and moodiness that can make a 20-year-old girl a handful. Surprisingly, the couple's early years--their courtship and marriage--is far more interesting than their cause célèbre divorce, yet neither provides us with much to think about. Youthful Roxy is seduced by the cocaine and club life, but is rendered fairly helpless once Pulitzer starts pulling legal strings, making her out to be an unfit mother to their twin boys. We can see neither person was ready for a serious marriage, and that the tug-of-war for child custody is just a game to this master manipulator of a husband. So what's the point of this doomed love story? There is none; it's just a sleek exercise in would-be voyeurism, dogged by wooden acting and a facetious script littered with holes and unexplained incidents. King, with gray streaks in his hair (or hairpiece), never changes throughout the years. Once a promising young actor, King is coasting here, filling in a sketch left behind by writer Elizabeth Gill and delivering a tepid performance. *1/2 from ****
