The Users

Jaclyn Smith never embarrasses herself as an actress. Although her beauty is likely what got her cast on TV's "Charlie's Angels", Smith was often terrific on that show, showing intelligence and spunk. Unfortunately, no one working in films or television has ever been able to tap that sassy side of her again--she's often been a clotheshorse in roles. In "The Users", a useless potboiler adapted from Joyce Haber's equally useless novel, Smith plays muse to a faded Hollywood hack, climbing the ladder of celebrity herself only to find Lotus Land full of backbiters. Despite Dominick Dunne as producer (and co-screenwriter with Robert J. Shaw) and old friend Aaron Spelling as executive producer, this melodramatic soap opera for ABC-TV has sudsy dialogue and tatty trappings. We do get to see Tony Curtis being picked up by a young man at a party...also Red Buttons doing business from a hot tub (!). As for the star, Jaclyn Smith gave much stronger performances on "Charlie's Angels". Say what you will about those ladies, but they didn't suffer fools or Hollywood phonies. ** from ****