Television: The Roles of Their Lives

But the show also wrings awkward humor out of the small humiliations of actor life, as when Bryan does an ER episode and forgets cast member Deezer D's name. ("You probably thought I was Mekhi Phifer," says the peeved African-American actor.) Best is the relationship between Krista and her son Jake (Allen's adorable real son Jake Moritt, 7, the show's breakout), who gets cast in a movie Krista tries out for. Soon she's going to kiddie auditions--at one a show-biz mom advises her to get his ears surgically tucked--and finding her answering machine filled with acting offers for Jake, while she gets pitches from Playboy. Earlier, she and Jake look through a stack of her pinup photos. "You did this? And you did this?" he asks, smiling but confused. She smiles back and sheepishly asks if he thinks the pictures are "nuts." The scenes are disturbing but touching too, and Allen is appealingly understated in them. (Brave too, since in real life, she actually did those Cuervo, Baywatch and Emmanuelle gigs.)

Sophisticated and sympathetic, Unscripted has a lot going for it, including a crisp v??rit?? look from Clooney, who directs the first five episodes. But it also finds HBO--the network for people who disdain formulaic TV--falling into a formula. The network could argue that formulaic works as long as it's entertaining. But it wouldn't hurt also to remember that although all the world may be a stage, the stage is not all the world.