Death Of A Centerfold (1981)

The story of model, actress and Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her tragic end. Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont. Two years prior to Bob Fosse’s STAR 80, this telefilm did its take on the notorious Dorothy Stratten murder. It plays vaguely with the facts (afraid of lawsuits?) and lacks the intensity of the Fosse film. Dorothy Stratten, as written here, comes across as too naïve to be taken seriously. She has victim tattooed on her forehead from scene one. Jamie Lee Curtis (who possesses an innate intelligence that is the opposite of Stratten‘s victim) as Stratten does as well as she can but the fault is in the writing, not her performance. Best to stick with the 1983 Fosse film which has a better Paul Snider (Eric Roberts) than the obvious whack job (Bruce Weitz) here. With Robert Reed in the Peter Bogdanovich part and Mitchell Ryan as Hugh Hefner.