A STAR IS PORN
Skin
Reviewed October 20, 2003
9 pm, FOX

by Steve Robinson
A quick 'fess-up: Last Monday, I attended a premiere party for Skin. There was good food, good drink and scantily clad — but not undressed — women (and men) dancing provocatively on platforms. They were thematic. I met with publicists and people from Warner Brothers (the producing studio), who were entertained by my stories about when my mom worked on the lot in the WBTV Department back in the days of Maverick and 77 Sunset Strip. I had a good time. OK?

Now, with a clear conscience, I can say that I like this new series.

There's nothing like young love. Even when it's older. And with a pair of stars as attractive as Olivia Wilde and D.J. Cotrona, it's even better. You'd be tempted to watch even if this was a simple sappy 90210 wannabe. But it's not.

Provocatively titled and appealingly cast, Skin takes the outline of Romeo and Juliet and sets it down in contemporary Los Angeles. But don't let the title fool you. The producers stress it's about the characters. And it is. To be sure, there is flesh to be seen: a corset-clad torso here, a naked back there. But that's hardly the focus, only serving as a backdrop to the romance — and a war.

Ms. Wilde, a luminous beauty, plays 16-year-old Jewel Goldman. At a party, she meets Adam Roam (Cotrona), who's the best kind of handsome: he doesn't know it. They're both "good" kids. The chemistry is immediate — and, as the apparently star-crossed lovers quickly learn, explosive.

Adam's father is a Los Angeles DA running for re-election. Jewel's father is the world's most successful producer of adult entertainment. It's "The DA's Son and the Pornographer's Daughter!" (No, let's stick with Skin.) The fathers come together when Roam, who was curiously oblivious to Goldman until now, links a kiddie-porn website to a subsidiary of a subsidiary of a subsidiary of one of Goldman's vast holdings. Nemeses are born. That's where the characters really emerge, and where I really like this show.

The erudite, moral and devoted family man — the pornographer — is played by Ron Silver. And I love Ron Silver. He's a terrific actor. He may not always be in a hit (Dear Detective anybody?), but he seldom misses. I love to watch him dismiss a threat, and give one; and he does both here. He looks like a man who could be your best friend and stab you in the back at the same time. He's perfect as Larry Goldman, a happily married father of two who knows that despite being "one hundred percent legal," his is a "sensitive business."

And the most sensitive thing about his business is District Attorney Thomas Roam. Kevin Anderson cuts a solid figure as the upright — and uptight? — politician who makes Goldman his main campaign issue, encouraged by his campaign manager. "Every politician needs a target," says ambitious Cynthia Peterson, played by Laura Leighton, bad-girl Sydney on Melrose Place. However, Roam's chief of staff (Gabriel Casseus) thinks Goldman is the "wrong target... political suicide."

No matter to Roam, who's a dog with a bone, despite the fact that the philanthropic Goldman is one of the mayor's biggest contributors. An anti-porn crusader in Hollywood? Aye, there's the rub. But it makes for the best scenes, those between Silver and Anderson, whose cool seething encounters contrast their kids' passion. If Goldman is as clean as he says, you've got to wonder how far, and how long, the DA can go — and how long before Goldman pushes back. It remains to be seen, but of course, that's the point. Clarence Williams III plays the heavy, a common enemy each thinks he can use against the other.

Meanwhile, the kids suffer not only the throes of romance, but their parents' prohibition on the whole thing. You can almost hear Dion and the Belmonts crooning, "Why must I be a teenager in love?"
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