TV Reviews : ‘Roxanne’s’ Prize: Quick Descent Into Degradation

For a while there, we media folks were caught up with the beauteous Roxanne Pulitzer and her sex groupings and coke snortings and child custody battling and generally putting on airs in Palm Beach, Fla.

And now, as all good scandals will, she and they have come to television. “Roxanne: The Prize Pulitzer,” based on her book of the same name, starts on NBC at 9 tonight and drags on two hours. It’s executive produced by Robert Halmi, who most recently helped give us “Lonesome Dove.” It was written by Elizabeth Gill and directed by Richard Colla.

This is Lonesome Roxanne facing life. She’s played by newcomer Chynna (as in China) Phillips, with Perry King performing as heavy-breathing Herbert Pulitzer (as in the newspaper Pulitzers) and Courteney Cox as a hot-eyed Jacquie Kimberly (as in the wife of the Kimberly-Clark heir). The real Roxanne passes through as a party goer.

It’s tough to figure just how much true there is in this true story. You’d think at least that it’s her citing of the truth. At any rate, it doesn’t matter. The whole enterprise becomes tougher and tougher to watch as her journey into degradation becomes more and more sordid and stupid.

It’s very difficult to care about these folks, although actress Phillips, 21, who was mama and papa-ed by Michelle and John Phillips of the 1960s Mamas and the Papas, displays an exciting emotional range, especially for a new kid in town.

The bottom line is that she doesn’t do “dumb” very well, which is what our heroine seems to have in extra added abundance. At the very end, for example, after all the incredible disasters have befallen her, Roxanne tells us that she is now trying to learn from her mistakes. Thing is, I know puppies that learn faster than that.