Dirty Love

Jenny McCarthy's sketch-comedy work on MTV in the mid-'90s, the stacked Playboy bunny had decent comic instincts, and a rare eagerness to laugh at herself. Which is why Dirty Love, her self-written comeback vehicle (directed by her soon-to-be-ex-husband), is so dispiriting. McCarthy is still a tremendously appealing presence, but her script about a gal who tries to move on after her himbo boyfriend kicks her to the curb is pure amateur hour. The disparity is really amazing: McCarthy's sheer brio is stranded in a sea of misfiring gags and incongruous schmaltz.