Little Black Book

Starring: Brittany Murphy, Ron Livingston, Kathy Bates, Holly Hunter, Rashida Jones, Stephen Tobolowsky

Directed by: Nick Hurran

RS: 1of 4 Stars

2004 Romance

Here's a comedy of punishing tedium that pretends to be hip when it's so five minutes ago. Brittany Murphy turns on her caffeinated perkiness to play Stacy, a wanna-be TV journalist who finds work on a scum talk show (with Kathy Bates playing a female Jerry Springer).

Barb (a slumming Holly Hunter) is a producer who persuades Stacy to do a segment on black books (now Palm Pilots) as a way of learning if Stacy's lover (Ron Livingston) is cheating on her with his ex-girlfriends, played by Josie Maran, Rashida Jones and Julianne Nicholson. Treat this sucker like the actors should have done when they read the script: Kick it to the curb.