Lefcourt

Hollywood has had writer Peter Lefcourt to kick around for four decades now, and it doesn't look like it's letting up any time soon. Highs have included an Emmy for "Cagney & Lacey" and his latest gig as co-executive producer on the current season of "Desperate Housewives." Lows have encompassed a jobless period after having been deemed "difficult," just about the worst label a writer can get. It's no wonder that the author, screenwriter and playwright holds his highest praise for the stage.

Hollywood has had writer Peter Lefcourt to kick around for four decades now, and it doesn't look like it's letting up any time soon. Highs have included an Emmy for "Cagney & Lacey" and his latest gig as co-executive producer on the current season of "Desperate Housewives." Lows have encompassed a jobless period after having been deemed "difficult," just about the worst label a writer can get. It's no wonder that the author, screenwriter and playwright holds his highest praise for the stage.

Arthur Schnitzler's "La Ronde" followed a circle of romantic encounters through fin de siecle Vienna. A century later, Peter Lefcourt's "La Ronde de Lunch" follows a circle of power tetes-a-tetes at Le Pueblo della Venezia, a fashionable restaurant on Melrose Avenue. It's a clever idea for an extended sketch, but it has been over-extended in its two-act form at Actors Alley in North Hollywood.

The intriguing if gimmicky premise behind Peter Lefcourt's cocky sixth novel is a Bildungsroman structured around a chronicle of 11 former loves who all happened to be named Karen. Lefcourt's hero is a fledgling writer referred to as "L--" who consults a statistician friend on the odds against such "chronic Karenphilia." "The first thing he wanted to know, naturally, was the size of the statistical sample."

You probably heard about this on "Hard Copy": Schenectady urologist Ernie Haas--clad, as usual, in a size 8 dress and carefully coordinated pantyhose--was having sex with his wife, Audrey, when he had a heart attack and died. Unfortunately, Audrey was, as usual, handcuffed to their antique stove and unable to get help. Worse, Ernie remained (how shall we say this in a family newspaper?) tumescent.

Peter Lefcourt's latest satirical novel begins with a very domestic, very private scene, the kind that requires doors to be locked and shades drawn. A cross-dressing Schenectady, N.Y., urologist, Ernie Haas, is making love to his wife, Audrey. He is wearing some of her clothes--they are both a "perfect size 8." She is standing up. He has manacled her to the kitchen stove with padded red handcuffs ordered from a Santa Monica specialty store. She is watching the Home Shopping Network on TV.

The intriguing if gimmicky premise behind Peter Lefcourt's cocky sixth novel is a Bildungsroman structured around a chronicle of 11 former loves who all happened to be named Karen. Lefcourt's hero is a fledgling writer referred to as "L--" who consults a statistician friend on the odds against such "chronic Karenphilia." "The first thing he wanted to know, naturally, was the size of the statistical sample."

Looking for that perfect gift to celebrate Election Day? Search no further. With only a handful of shopping days remaining, Peter Lefcourt's "The Woody" makes the perfect ballot stuffer. This neon farce lights up the political spectrum to the left and the right of the primary colors. Woodrow Wilson White, the junior senator from Vermont, is in a bind. Despite his "million dollar blue eyes" and full head of hair, his reelection is in jeopardy.

"The Woody" is billed as "the most outrageous inside Washington satire since 'Primary Colors.' " "Primary Colors" was a wonderful book. But it wasn't a satire. It was a realistic novel and a roman a clef. A simple dictionary definition of satire is "the use of sarcasm or irony in exposing human folly." It refers to works that use exaggeration or literalization of a metaphor to bring some aspect of reality into sharp relief.

Peter Lefcourt's latest satirical novel begins with a very domestic, very private scene, the kind that requires doors to be locked and shades drawn. A cross-dressing Schenectady, N.Y., urologist, Ernie Haas, is making love to his wife, Audrey. He is wearing some of her clothes--they are both a "perfect size 8." She is standing up. He has manacled her to the kitchen stove with padded red handcuffs ordered from a Santa Monica specialty store. She is watching the Home Shopping Network on TV. Suddenly, Ernie dies of a heart attack.

"The Woody" is billed as "the most outrageous inside Washington satire since 'Primary Colors.' " "Primary Colors" was a wonderful book. But it wasn't a satire. It was a realistic novel and a roman a clef. A simple dictionary definition of satire is "the use of sarcasm or irony in exposing human folly." It refers to works that use exaggeration or literalization of a metaphor to bring some aspect of reality into sharp relief.

Looking for that perfect gift to celebrate Election Day? Search no further. With only a handful of shopping days remaining, Peter Lefcourt's "The Woody" makes the perfect ballot stuffer. This neon farce lights up the political spectrum to the left and the right of the primary colors. Woodrow Wilson White, the junior senator from Vermont, is in a bind. Despite his "million dollar blue eyes" and full head of hair, his reelection is in jeopardy.

You probably heard about this on "Hard Copy": Schenectady urologist Ernie Haas--clad, as usual, in a size 8 dress and carefully coordinated pantyhose--was having sex with his wife, Audrey, when he had a heart attack and died. Unfortunately, Audrey was, as usual, handcuffed to their antique stove and unable to get help. Worse, Ernie remained (how shall we say this in a family newspaper?) tumescent.

Peter Lefcourt's latest satirical novel begins with a very domestic, very private scene, the kind that requires doors to be locked and shades drawn. A cross-dressing Schenectady, N.Y., urologist, Ernie Haas, is making love to his wife, Audrey. He is wearing some of her clothes--they are both a "perfect size 8." She is standing up. He has manacled her to the kitchen stove with padded red handcuffs ordered from a Santa Monica specialty store. She is watching the Home Shopping Network on TV. Suddenly, Ernie dies of a heart attack.

Peter Lefcourt's latest satirical novel begins with a very domestic, very private scene, the kind that requires doors to be locked and shades drawn. A cross-dressing Schenectady, N.Y., urologist, Ernie Haas, is making love to his wife, Audrey. He is wearing some of her clothes--they are both a "perfect size 8." She is standing up. He has manacled her to the kitchen stove with padded red handcuffs ordered from a Santa Monica specialty store. She is watching the Home Shopping Network on TV.

There was a joke going around Hollywood a few years ago about the starlet who was so dumb she was having an affair with a writer. In real life, it's no joke. Writers are far from the top of the food chain. At any given time, there are hundreds of new writers toiling away at their typewriters or computers, between day and/or night jobs.

"No one is just good or bad," Peter Lefcourt says. "In all of us, there's the capacity for goodness and evil. People are complex." Consider the case of Leonard Mills, the anti-hero protagonist of Lefcourt's "The Audit," making its world premiere tonight in Actors Alley's temporary home at Valley College's Horseshoe Theater. "I based the character on my Uncle Leroy," the New York native noted. "He was quite a character.

What? you query. Another, yet another book about Hollywood and the making of a movie? And you're telling us to go out and buy it? Yes, yes, yes. In spite of the fact that there must be a couple of thousand Hollywood novels out by now, you can count the wonderful ones on two hands and still have fingers left over: Gavin Lambert's "Inside Daisy Clover," David Freeman's "A Hollywood Education," Ludwig Bemelmans' "Dirty Eddy."

"No one is just good or bad," Peter Lefcourt says. "In all of us, there's the capacity for goodness and evil. People are complex." Consider the case of Leonard Mills, the anti-hero protagonist of Lefcourt's "The Audit," making its world premiere tonight in Actors Alley's temporary home at Valley College's Horseshoe Theater. "I based the character on my Uncle Leroy," the New York native noted. "He was quite a character.

Peter Lefcourt, a Los Angeles novelist and television writer, thanks his editor in the acknowledgments of "The Dreyfus Affair" for buying the book "on a one-sentence pitch." And within a dozen pages you know (unless you've cheated and read the flap copy) exactly what that pitch must have been: All-star shortstop falls in love with second baseman.