All smiles - but it'll all end in tears

It's Tom and Nicole's marriage breakdown - only on a much wider scale.

Nigel Bell

Celebrities are big business. You only have to look at Hello and OK magazines to see that.

When big marriages break-up, it means big circulation bonuses for those publications.

Whether the public's genuinely worried about the future of stars like Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman is debatable but that's the premise of America's Sweethearts.

So, do I get to present next year's Oscars or not?

Eddie and Gwen (Cusack and Zeta-Jones) are the Hollywood showbiz pairing who's marriage suddenly hits the rocks.

Trouble is, when their vows are broken the public turn on them. Their popularity tumbles and that's the clarion call for the film studio to hire a publicist (Crystal) to try and get them back together (therefore stopping their movies being flops).

It's no easy fix. Gwen is useless at doing anything without her sister Kiki (Roberts) and Eddie's cracking up.

There are also other romances which help cloud the situation.

It's a tale with much potential and, given that interest in movie stars, a potentially big audience.

If I don't get more screen time than Catherine I'll scream and scream

Sad then that the host of big names doesn't mix with a mundane script.

For many of the stars it's acting by numbers. There are one of two funny moments but the premise promised much more.

Still, it's nice to see Catherine Zeta-Jones continuing with her Hollywood high life after years in the doldrums following Darling Buds of May.

Let's just hope her marriage to Michael Douglas doesn't end up reflecting the storyline of America's Sweethearts.