THOSE WHO TRESPASS

A disgruntled ex-newsman declares open season on the colleagues who destroyed his career—in this formula debut by Fox newsman O’Reilly. Who used a spoon (don’t ask) to kill Ron Costello, lecherous senior White House correspondent for the Global News Network (GNN), following a party on Martha’s Vineyard? The killer might well have been an ex-colleague with a grievance against Costello, but that wouldn’t narrow the field much—even when Costello’s followed to the cemetery by Hillary Ross, the v.p. of News Personnel. Everybody NYPD Det. Tommy O’Malley talks to agrees that Ross knew nothing about TV news, and really got off on bringing the axe down on the high-priced talent she terminated. Despite the wide-open field, though, one suspect outruns the pack: Shannon Michaels, a correspondent forced to resign after Ross took management’s side against his claim that he was “bigfooted”—elbowed out of a news story—by pretty-boy anchor Lyle Fleming. Michaels had found refuge at Channel 6 News until he was forced out there, too, this time by a phony-baloney demographic survey consultant Martin Moore cooked up. So when Moore gets killed, Michaels rockets to the head of the class—except for reporter Ashley Van Buren, who can’t believe that a man who could give such a sensuous massage could also be a serial killer. The stage is set for a smorgasbord of clichÇs—the ethically challenged newsmen, the cat-and-mouse between cop and killer (spiked by their romantic rivalry for the romantic prize), the race to protect the climactic victim—none of it, thanks to O’Reilly’s wooden writing and lack of originality, surprising or believable for a minute. The biggest mystery: Given all the dirty tricks at every level of GNN (the extent of insider O’Reilly’s hot news flash about the biz), why is the body count so low? ($25,000 ad/promo budget; TV and radio satellite tour; author tour)