The Last Hollywood Romance

Welcome to the slapstick world of sitcom television, where foul-mouthed, ambitious 28-year-old Emmaline Goldman Grosvenor is partnered with sad-sack gag writer Bud Goodman, 48, to punch up the scripts for an insipid hit sitcom called Life with Lucky. Emmaline, who formerly scripted a critically acclaimed show, isn't sure she wants to be on this team, and it seems unlikely to Bud that the partnership will work out, but then they start thinking on the same wavelength, reading each other's minds, and the stage is set for romance and an endless series of tepid jokes. Former TV writer Bloomberg's debut romantic comedy features chapters in which Bud and Emmaline alternately take up the narration, but the ""he said/she said"" format, rather than illuminating both sides, merely serves up the same material twice. Populated mostly with stock characters--the spoiled star, the paranoid director, etc.--the novel's one overtly unconventional character is the production mogul who has cerebral palsy. While the author clearly intends to portray the disabled producer who becomes a powerhouse as surprising, stereotype smashing and satirical, she merely succeeds in making this character pitiful and boorish. Worst of all, while Bud's cornball jokes may be what Emmaline loves about him, they're nearly unendurable, his shtick consisting chiefly of borscht belt humor gone past its prime. These characters may be sitcom writers, but all the laughter is canned. (Sept.)