WHO THE HELL IS CHIP GLASS?

AN IRREVERENTLY DARK COMEDY ABOUT HOLLYWOOD, CABLE ACCESS AND DEATH BY CHOCOLATE.

STORY SYNOPSIS

When notorious, Hollywood cable access, talk-show host CHIP GLASS is found dead in his bathtub, the apparent victim of deliberate poisoning, the police arrest JIMMY FAHLINHART, the director of cable access at Worldview Cablevision where Chip produced his show.  It seems that not only were Jimmy's fingerprints found on the alleged murder weapon, a box of poisoned "Angel Puff" chocolate cookies, but also a vial of that same poison was found in his apartment.  The police also conclude that Chip's last word, the letters M A G, scribbled in chocolate on the bathroom tile floor with his dying hand, stand for "maggot", a name he was heard calling Jimmy that same morning during one of their many arguments.

Envisioning a ratings bonanza, Channel Six, network news director FLITCHARD GLUT instructs his senior crime reporter to hype this story for all it's worth.  Ambitious cub reporter B.J. EAGERMAN, frustrated at reporting only supermarket openings and celebrity bowling tournaments, takes it on herself, with the help of cameraman HECTOR OSCURO, to scoop Jimmy's arrest only to get herself suspended for overstepping her bounds. 

Encouraged by her friend and mentor, aging, Channel Six anchorman RANDALL BRAND to stay with the story, B.J. joins forces with COOKIE MARTINEZ, Jimmy's assistant at Worldview, who staunchly maintains Jimmy's innocence.  B.J. goes undercover at Worldview Cablevision.  Through Cookie's insistence, B.J. gets to know Jimmy and also comes to believe that he's being framed.

Against the absurdly off-beat world of Hollywood cable access, where such occurrences as men in drag wrestling alligators, and barbershop quartets dressed as vegetables sing the praises of colonic irrigation are commonplace, Cookie and B.J. set out to uncover the real murderer.  Initially adversaries, from radically different cultural backgrounds, and with divergently different agendas, the two women come to know and respect each other, and eventually, become close friends. 

As they interview the people who knew Chip, Cookie and B.J. quickly realize that the eccentric, celebrity talk show host and former child movie star had more enemies than Saddam Hussein. Nonetheless, they begin to hone in on a mysterious woman from Chip's past, MARGARET LANDER, a reporter with whom he had a love affair in his youth, and who purportedly threw his life and career into a tailspin when she abruptly ended the relationship and disappeared.

While investigating the identity of a mystery guest who'd suddenly canceled his scheduled appearance on Chip's show the day of his murder, the two women discover a connection between Margaret and Channel Six's anchor, Randall Brand, B.J.'s friend.  Concluding that Margaret is, in fact, Randall's twin sister whom Randall's trying to protect, B.J. and Cookie agree that Randall's testimony is the only thing that'll get Jimmy off the hook.  Confident that, because of her relationship with Randall, she can convince him to do the right thing, B.J. goes to Channel Six and confronts him.

The climactic scene has a desperate Randall taking B.J., at gun point, out on a fifth floor window ledge at Channel Six.  It's there he reveals that he is not Margaret's twin brother, but rather, Margaret herself who's undergone a sex change in order to succeed in a male-dominated field. 

The ever opportunistic Glut hands B.J. a microphone and Hector a camera demanding that the whole event be broadcast live.

Randall goes on to confess that he killed Chip because Chip was about to expose him and ruin everything he'd work for.  Framing Jimmy for the murder was the only logical thing he could do since it was common knowledge that Jimmy's recent quotes in an L.A. Times article had greatly angered Chip.  Having cleared his conscience, Randall jumps to his death, landing on Glut's BMW below the ledge, much to the news director's chagrin.

In the end, all works out for our heroines as B.J. becomes the new news anchor at the station, and both women become romantically involved with the other's work partner -- Cookie with Hector and B.J. with Jimmy.