THE BOY WHO NEVER GREW UP

Veteran ghostwriter Hoagy Hoag (The Woman Who Fell from Grace, etc.), bereft of his wife Merilee, is back in Hollywood to help Boy Wonder director Matthew Wax tell the story of his life—or his side of the story, since his wife Pennyroyal Brim, America's Sweetheart, has just filed for a messy divorce. The well-chronicled split (Penny's hired her own ghost, and even casual observers get pumped for every detail) turns into a genuine bloodbath when Penny's feral lawyer and his current toy boy are found shot. There'll be more murder, endless dirt dished about (and by) a zillion suspects—all well-developed and sharply focused—and more than enough bright dialogue to perk up the obligatory theme parties, alcoholic breakfasts, and romantic ambushes (Hoagy must be the most irresistible ghost in Culver City) before the logical, though intolerably overextended, finale. An ebullient exposÇ of what you only wish were Steven Spielberg's private life.