"Mrs. Grenville, must you leave?"

"I wish you’d call me Alice."

"I don’t think I could ever do that."

And so it went between Ann-Margret and Claudette Colbert in the 1987 deluxe TV version of Dominick Dunne’s deluxe, not-so-fictional novel, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles.

Dominick’s book was based on the real-life 1955 scandal of Billy and Ann Woodward. He was heir to the Hanover Bank fortune. She was a showgirl. They married, tempestuously. She shot him to death "by mistake." His mother, in an effort to staunch the dirty laundry, publicly backed her shotgun-totin’ daughter-in-law. Privately, she believed Ann had deliberately murdered Billy.

Truman Capote wrote a thinly disguised version of these events in his notorious 1965 "Le Cote Basque" article for Esquire, all but accusing Ann of murder. She committed suicide shortly after the piece appeared. (Capote had also done himself in, socially. Tru had told too much about too many.)

The Dominick Dunne movie is finally, at long last, out on DVD from Warner Bros. Directed by John Erman, this was filmed at the peak of the lush 1980s miniseries genre, and it’s great! Ann-Margret chews the scenery to a nub, and then chomps down even more, as the voluptuous social climber with a seedy past. Miss Colbert, in what would be her last film appearance, underplays exquisitely. The fire-and-ice confrontations between the two stars are electrifying.

Stephen Collins appears as the doomed, decadent heir, but the movie belongs to the two Mrs. Grenvilles. (Staircase scenes, hospital room scenes, graveyard scenes – A-M and Colbert are fed sirloin, and devour it.)

I usually save this accolade for feature films from the golden age of Hollywood, but it applies as well to this masterpiece of glamorous TV melodrama: "They don’t make ‘em like this anymore!"

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Hey, you people planning vacations. London becomes good value as the pound falls. The Lonely Planet guide points this out, claiming that dear old London town is one of the world’s top-ten best-value attractions with lots of cheap hotels and free museums. The editor, Tom Hall, writes: "The tables have turned and London’s reputation as one of the world’s most expensive cities is over."

Other cheap spots – Iceland, South Africa, Las Vegas and Kenya!

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Actor John Hurt is trying to get his sequel movie on the late gay doyenne Quentin Crisp up and running. Hurt played Crisp in the 1975 classic "The Naked Civil Servant" and now "An Englishman in New York" should already be released. It’s been in the can for more than 18 months. It has the distinction of taking its title from the song by Sting, whose inspiration was Mr. Crisp. As the latter was so popular in New York, there is great anticipation. "Of course, I’m a bit fed up about the delay!" says Hurt. He is hoping the film will appear in late December, but who knows? (Is Mr. Hurt unaware that "An Englishman" is running on the America’s Logo Channel; devoted to all things gay?)

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If your dog lived at the White House, like Bo, the Portuguese water dog belonging to Malia and Sasha Obama, you could expect things like a birthday "cake" shaped into a dog kennel and made out of veal. It’s a dog’s life but not at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Speaking of that, Sir Roger Moore joined the anti-foie-gras brigade and says he’ll fight to get shoppers to stop buying the goose liver product. He didn’t say that as a forerunner of 007, James Bond, he’d give up champagne and caviar.

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Madonna’s school charity in Malawi is being besieged by Africans demanding more money for the land it’s to be built on. One hundred forty protestors have blocked the building of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, which would accommodate about 500 young girls. It’s already costing Madonna about $15 million. Hmm, no good deed goes unpunished!