TV REVIEW : Another Good Girl Gone Bad

Don’t let your daughter grow up to be a drug-addicted porn star.

That’s about the only point of “Shattered Innocence” (tonight at 9 p.m., Channels 2 and 8), an example of how commercial television can strip a sensational true story of its complexities and power.

The movie is based on the tale of Colleen Applegate, a Midwestern cheerleader who moved to Hollywood, became porn star Shauna Grant, then died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 23, 1984, at the age of 20.

Her story was first chronicled in The Times on May 6, 1984. Last year, she was the subject of a PBS “Frontline” documentary, “Death of a Porn Queen.”

The writers of “Shattered Innocence,” Thanet Richard and Sandor Stern (Stern also directed) begin their version of the story with its violent ending, eliminating any narrative suspense. This wouldn’t matter much if the rest of the narrative weren’t so depressingly familiar. But stories of good girls gone wrong in Hollywood are a dime a dozen. If there isn’t anything special about this particular one, couldn’t we at least be allowed to wonder--for an hour or two--how it will end?

It’s almost as if the writers didn’t believe there was anything special about this story. Perhaps they hoped that the masses would relate to it more if they saw Colleen Applegate (here known as Pauline Anderson) and her family as just like them. The message: Your daughter--or you--could wind up like Pauline if you don’t watch out.

Call this movie “The Perils of Pauline.”

But the fact is that most Midwestern girls, even those who go to Hollywood, don’t wind up like Pauline. Contrary to the connotation of the title, Pauline’s innocence isn’t shattered in a sudden accident or crime. She makes a series of choices, most of them self-destructive. In only one line does this script suggest a degree of calculation behind her choices.

The real Colleen Applegate took an overdose of pills before she even left the Midwest. According to the “Frontline” documentary, during one year of her life in Hollywood she contracted herpes, had an abortion and had sex with 37 men.

“Shattered Innocence” ignores all this--and the motivations for such behavior--in its attempt to underline Pauline’s all-American qualities (and perhaps in an attempt to satisfy the CBS censors?). Yes, Shauna Grant’s image was evidently based on her girl-next-door quality, and there surely were authentic strands of that quality in Colleen Applegate’s personality. Yet the film makers have simply accepted her image at face value.

Not that they should have painted her as an exotic creature who had nothing to do with you or me. In fact, they also left out some details that might have illuminated her hometown side, such as the fact that a high school friend stayed with the real Colleen for two weeks just before she died.

Perhaps they felt a more faithful accounting of the real Colleen Applegate story would be exploitative. If so, they should have come up with an equally vivid fictionalization. Instead, we see one predictable scene after another--and then, just before Pauline pulls the trigger at the end, we run through the same scenes in the form of quick voice-overs. Pauline’s life flashes in front of her ears.

Within the restrictions imposed by the script, Jonna Lee is a convincing embodiment of Pauline. As her mother, Melinda Dillon sighs and cries in a manner that many a mother will understand. At least the writers didn’t draw all the men as ogres; Kris Kamm and John Pleshette bring a touch of tenderness to their roles as Pauline’s first and last boyfriends.