Hollywood Wives (1985)

Hollywood wives, second wives, ex-wives and daughters struggle to keep their position in the hierarchy of Beverly Hills social standing as well as forwarding careers of either their husbands or themselves. Among the participants: a kleptomaniac (Candice Bergen) married to a fading actor (Steve Forrest), a writer (Stefanie Powers) married to an Oscar winning English director (Anthony Hopkins), the director's ex-wife (Joanna Cassidy), a blackmailing sex symbol (Suzanne Somers), a studio head (Rod Steiger), a powerful agent (Angie Dickinson), the promiscuous daughter (Mary Crosby) of a legendary actor (Robert Stack), a pimp (Roddy McDowall) for male escorts and a struggling actor (Andrew Stevens) and his wife (Catherine Mary Stewart). Who doesn't like to wallow in lurid trash, based on the book by Jackie Collins, like this occasionally? The first three hours is sleazy fun with the lurid plots, overripe dialogue, hideous 80s hairdos, Nolan Miller's DYNASTY fashion toss offs and Laura Branigan's disco title song. But the last hour and a half is a thumping bore as they tie up the loose ends of the increasingly preposterous plot. Andrew Stevens has a dual role, in addition to the struggling actor, he plays a homicidal psychopath and it's a toss up as to which performance is the worst. Directed by Robert Day. With Frances Bergen, Julius Harris and Fran Ryan.