Marc Shaiman

Reunited by the death of a college friend, three divorced women seek revenge on the husbands who left them for younger women. After years of helping their hubbies climb the ladder of success, three wives have been dumped for newer, curvier models. But the trio is determined to turn their pain into gain. They come up with a cleverly devious plan to hit their exes where it really hurts, in the wallet. Sit back and watch the sparks fly as The Wives get mad, get even, and get it all. Justice has seldom been so sweet. Or so much fun. Reunited after nearly three long decades at their friend's funeral, the once-close-knit team of college friends--the Oscar-winning actress, Elise; the mouthy, Brenda, and the quiet housewife, Annie--realise that they have much more in common than their age. Betrayed and divorced by their treacherous husbands for trophy mistresses, the wronged women finally summon up the courage to take matters into their own hands, to avenge themselves, and give them a dose of their own medicine. Now, the exes are hell-bent on getting even. Do their former men stand a chance against the First-Wives Club? —Nick Riganas Now in middle age, Elise Eliot, Brenda Cushman née Morelli, Annie Paradis née MacDuggan, and Cynthia Griffin née Swann were the closest of friends in college twenty-five years ago, but they drifted apart after college in their differences. Elise is a youth obsessed famous actress. Brenda is brash and straight talking. Annie is a doormat of a woman who has never taken a decisive action in her life. And Cynthia is the proverbial glue in guiding the other three. Elise, Brenda and Annie are reunited at Cynthia's funeral, she who committed suicide upon the marriage of her ex-husband Gil Griffin to who was his much younger mistress. In reuniting, the three women come to various degrees of realization that they are much like each other and much like Cynthia: each is at a different stage of her marriage dissolving - Brenda and her discount retail mogul husband Morty Cushman have already divorced, Elise and her movie producer husband Bill Atchison are in the middle of a contentious divorce with Bill requesting alimony, and Annie and her husband Aaron Paradis, a partner in a successful ad firm, are separated, although Annie goes running back to Aaron for sex anytime he asks in her anticipation that they will get back together - and that each wife was the catalyst for her respective husband's financial success. But it isn't until each woman receives a final letter of that guidance from Cynthia and that they all finally discover that there is a younger woman now in her husband's life that the three, with the help of supporters, decide to join forces to get revenge on their husbands. The questions become if they can find a way to get back at each of the three where it will really hurt them, and if they themselves can overcome their own differences to accomplish this goal. —Huggo

Stuart Smalley has a program on public access cable. To make money, Stuart waits tables, but his new healthy lifestyle interferes with his ability to simply do his job. Smiling all the time, he tries to give unwanted advice. The viewer learns he is a waiter while he is goofing off talking about life with his pretty and successful friend Julia. Not a romantic friend, but a very nice person who does a lot to help Stuart throughout the movie. She always has time for her friend, even with her big shot job, and she knows so many people who can help him out of his jams. Stuart is mistreated by his boss, who banishes him to late night and upsets his fans, though the boss won't reveal this fact. Others do that later. But Stuart has a more immediate concern: his beloved aunt has died and he must go home to attend the funeral and help mediate the battles between family members. For one thing, a cousin demands to use the family plot where the aunt would have been buried, showing up at the cemetery with cops after being ignored earlier. Later, it is determined that the aunt's house was built partly on a grumpy old man's land. And the grumpy old man wants a lot of money for it. And thanks to Stuart's bumbling, now he wants even more money. So Stuart may have to lie in court. He's too good a person to do that, or is he? Stuart's show is loved. And a cable network wants to make 20 episodes. It will take four hours to film them all. How Stuart got to this point involves some illegal actions and the firing of a receptionist who appears in his most memorable episode. Another crisis: Stuart's dad has always had a serious drinking problem. It's time to finally do something about it.

Michael Douglas is President Andrew Shepherd, a widower and father who begins to get uncomfortable with the perception surrounding his being a single father. He drops in on a meeting with environmental lobbyists and meets hard-charging Sydney Wade (Annette Bening). After Sydney escorts President Shepherd to a State dinner, the two strike up a relationship, much to the chagrin of Sydney's boss, played by John Mahoney, and much to the delight of President Shepherd's political rival, the scheming Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss). Rumson's attacks on Sydney and the President's character send President Shepherd's approval ratings tumbling and eventually forces Shepherd to choose between one of his priority bills and the bill Sydney was hired to get passed.

The strange members of the Addams family work to save Uncle Fester when he falls in love with the nanny, who also happens to be a black-widow murderess.

On the verge of turning 40, an unhappy Manhattan yuppie is roped into joining his two friends on a cattle drive in the southwest. Mitch is a middle-aged big-city radio-ads salesman. He and his friends Ed and Phil are having mid-life crises. They decide that the best birthday gift is to go on a two-week holiday in the Wild West, driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado. There they meet cowboy Curly who not only teaches them how to become real cowboys, but also one or two other things about life in the open air of the west. —Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com> Pushing 40, miserable New York City executive Mitch Robbins finds himself struggling to find his long-lost smile and meaning in life. But Mitch's equally-bored best friends, Ed and Phil, aren't doing any better. However, this year, to escape the dreaded midlife crisis, the lifelong companions have decided to follow their instinct and try their luck at getting a sense of accomplishment. Now, the utterly unprepared thrill-seekers are playing cowhands on a real-life, two-week cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado to find freedom. Will the clueless city slickers ever become real cowboys? —Nick Riganas