Reviews

True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet

By Marshall Fine

Rating:

Saturday, Aug. 9, 9PM, Lifetime

Think of this as "The Princess Diaries" in reverse: What happens when a spoiled young actress must dial back the entitled attitude and the life of luxury to deal with life as an ordinary kid? And do it sober? In this TV movie, Joanna Levesque (aka JoJo) plays Morgan, a Hollywood teen queen who's just out of rehab after a near-overdose. Rather than let her hop back into the Hollywood party scene, her mother sends Morgan to Indiana to her strict aunt (Valerie Bertinelli), to live under an alias as a normal high school student. JoJo is as believable as the script allows as a teen who never had a chance to be a kid - and now has to deal with feelings she used to drown with drinking. Bertinelli, post-Jenny Craig, recaptures her youthful fizz, while handsome newcomer Ian Nelson makes waves as the small-town guy who grabs Morgan's attention. It's a familiar recipe with a positive message.
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