September Book Club

Thursday, September 30
7:30 P.M.

Hosts: Bill & Andy
Location: 2001 Royalwood Dr., Arlington, 76006 (map)
Call for directions: 817-718-2424

MY LUCKY STAR (Joe Keenan). The glamorous Hollywood novel gets a sharp send-up as a smart drawing-room comedy crossed liberally with farce in this third offering from a successful television writer. Struggling playwrights Philip and Claire are summoned to Tinseltown by their calculating friend Gilbert to be screenwriters for a legendary diva, Diana Malenfant, and her megastar son, Stephen Donato. When the budding screenwriters are revealed as inadvertent plagiarists, Philip is forced to ghostwrite the memoirs of Diana's toxic has-been sister, Lily, and turn over all potentially damaging pages to Diana and Stephen. Lily is threatening to expose the silver screen's best-kept secret, that Stephen is gay. All are coexisting in a glittery detente until L.A.'s most fashionable madam gets the goods on the entire cast and demands a production credit, prodding the ever-capable Claire to devise the most madcap of rescues. The witty banter, zany plot twists, and colorful, likable characters (even the dastardly villains) provide a delight for fans of brainy comedy. If the ghost of Noel Coward isn't pleased, Frasier's is. (Kaite Mediatore, BOOKLIST)

GROUP RATING OF THIS FOLLOWING DISCUSSION (10=HI, 1=LO): 6.7