Miami Hustle

 ((Sun. (21), 8-9:20 p.m. Showtime))

By JEREMY GERARD

Filmed in Miami and Los Angeles by Showtime in association with Nu Image. Executive producers, Dan Dimbort, Avi Lerner, Trevor Short; producer, R. Ben Efraim; director, Lawrence Lanoff; writers, Philip Collins, Daniel Miller; director of photography, Henry Lynk.
 
Cast: Kathy Ireland, John Enos, Audie England, Richard Sarafian, Allan Rich, Eduardo Yanez. If the 1995 copyright date is correct, "Miami Hustle" predates "Striptease," though it has all the earmarks of a knockoff. It's set in southern Florida, frequently in a strip joint featuring both music and body parts that have no immediately apparent equivalents in nature, and sports a physically attractive star who gets in deeper and deeper over her head until the right guy comes along to save her assets.
 

This Showtime special seems designed to move quickly from cable to hotel satellite networks where lone males play Dirty Movie Chicken (tune in just long enough to catch some frontal exposure without having a charge appear on the bill).

It stars model Kathy Ireland as a chippy under the thumb of a sleazy lawyer (Richard Sarafian) when she isn't hustling spare change from gullible business execs.The lawyer sets her up in a scam to impersonate Audie England (Ireland versus England, what a concept!), a "shot girl" at the Duke of Earl topless bar who doesn't know she's about to inherit a millionaire's fortune.

Ireland befriends England and goes to work at the Duke while waiting for very rich one-night stand John Enos to call again so she can rationalize calling him her boyfriend. Then it turns out that it's Ireland who's being set up, and thank goodness Enos really does want to be her boyfriend.

Sample dialogue between Ireland and Enos: "Wow, my whole apartment could fit in your living room.""Yeah, well."

Keep the day job, Kathy. Bottom-feeding ill becomes you.

Editor, Michael Economou; sets, Steve Durante; music, Kevin Sepe; casting, Sue Swan, Yonit Duchman; costumes, Marilan Wall-asse, Gayle Suzan Baizer.