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Somehow, I know this conversation has happened many times in Hollywood. How else can you explain the casting of Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace? For that matter, what about the casting of Jenny McCarthy, Tori Spelling, Pamela Anderson or Kathy Ireland in anything? This is just one of the cynical barbs peppered throughout the over-the-top comedy Soapdish, a very funny, rather overlooked farce on soap operas and big egos.

The movie takes place in New York on the set of a struggling soap opera called "The Sun Also Sets," which is buffaloed by its prima donna star, Celeste Talbert (Sally Field). Celeste has been the most powerful force in the show's twenty-year history. What she says goes, and her co-workers are none too happy about it. Sex-starved producer David Barnes (Robert Downey Jr.) is trying to get Celeste thrown off the program, for the good of the show, and his sexual life. Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty) is Barnes' twisted love interest, who is growing impatient with his promises to make her the star. What's her ploy to keep him working at it? An offer to finally sleep with him.

After a failed attempt to make Celeste's onscreen persona Maggie the most hated character on the show, Barnes and Moorehead decide to pull an ace out of their back pocket. They bring back Jeffery Anderson (Kevin Kline) who was fired from the show some twenty years ago. Anderson played Dr. Rod Randall, Maggie's love interest, but more importantly, he was Celeste's real offscreen lover as well. The relationship ended badly, leading to his dismissal from the soap opera.

While Barnes hounds head writer Rosie Schwartz (Whoopi Goldberg) to write Anderson's character back into the show (a neat trick since his character was beheaded.), he also attempts to cause more tension. Barnes is determined to make Celeste jealous of newcomer Lori Craven (Elisabeth Shue) - the only problem is that Craven is actually Celeste's niece. While Celeste is not happy about her getting into acting, she willing to help her along. Things really heat up when Anderson, a known womanizer, starts to fall for Lori, causing more tension on the set...

Produced by Alan Greisman and prime time soap opera fiend Aaron Spelling, Soapdish floundered at the box office when it was release in 1991, but I've always felt it was underrated. Kline and Goldberg have always been know for their comic timing, but this was probably one of the best comedic performance I've seen from Sally Field, and she relishes the part of the stuck-up prima donna. This film is also a fine showcase for Robert "I need some smack" Downey - while Downey keeps falling off the recovery wagon, this film shows why people keep giving him the chance.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

When Paramount first released this film on laserdisc back in 1992, it suffered the typical anomalies associated with Paramount transfers of the time. The print was soft, colors were washed out and it was generally a mess. Thankfully, this new DVD rectifies all of the problems I had with the original widescreen laserdisc. Since Paramount has yet to be bitten by the "It's a flat film, let's release in full frame, no one will notice" bug, Soapdish is presented in its original 1.85 aspect ratio. The wonderful new anamorphic print is completely devoid of print damage, which surprised me. The colors are vibrant, while fleshtones look incredibly accurate. The black level is nice and deep, while never losing any definition. The details in the show costumes are amazing. As you would expect the contrast is solid, and as with most Paramount transfers, the digital artifacts are almost non- existent. There was a little bit of edge enhancement, but it wasn't too distracting.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

Paramount has been one of the better studios when it comes to remastering their product in 5.1, and Soapdish is no exception. Alas, Soapdish suffers from the pox of "comedy soundtrack-itis," it's 5.1, but really doesn't need to be. The majority of the surround sound is relegated to Alan Silvestri's bubbly score, but it comes across a little shrill at times. The rest of the film is essentially mono, excluding a few crowd scenes, and a limited amount of hard left and right off-screen dialog. The vocals are decently reproduced, as they should be for a modern film. The use of the LFE track is limited to the score and even that doesn't provide much "thump." When comparing the 5.1 soundtrack to the surround sound mix, I preferred the definition of the 5.1 soundtrack. But admittedly, some people may prefer the standard surround sound mix, since it fills the rear-channel more consistently.

Also included is a French 2.0 surround track, and English subtitles and Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

This is Paramount, so as you would expect, there's not much to the supplements. The original theatrical trailer is presented in anamorphic widescreen, while a brief four-minute featurette is thrown in for good measure but is a mere extended commercial.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts