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TV Bulletin Board (March 16)


Two for one special: Anna Nicole Smith and Kristy Swanson

By ED BARK
***Maybe Entertainment Tonight will have finally stopped its Anna Nicole Smith coverage by then. No, wait, they can devote a full half-hour to Law & Order: Criminal Intent's May 8th "Ripped From the Headlines" episode.

Subtitled "Bombshell," it stars Kristy Swanson (the big-screen's Buffy the Vamper Slayer) as former-stripper-turned-model Lorelei Mailer. She's also the widow of a 90-year-old billionaire. And her son "mysteriously" winds up dead, only to see Lorelei meet her expiration date just days later.

Smith surely would approve. Being dead has amped up her fame far beyond any wildest dreams she had. Swanson says in a straight-faced NBC release that she's "delighted to have the opportunity to work with such a wonderful cast."

Said cast also includes Peter Bogdanovich -- et tu, Peter? -- as George Merritt, publisher of Privilege magazine, which discovered Lorelei. And Arrested Development alum David Cross plays Ronnie Chase, Lorelei's manager, "committed partner" and alleged father of her newborn baby.

***Criminal Intent also will mine the NASA astronaut scandal, although not as specifically, in a May 1 episode titled "Rocket Man." Serviceable Tate Donovan (Disney's Hercules) stars as married astronaut Luke Nelson, whose affair with a colleague "turns sour" when she's found murdered in their sugar shack-up room.