Living with another man's wife can be murder.

SYNOPSIS:

Ted Burmeister was a man of little talent - a wannabe film producer who decided he would do 'whatever it took'. His luck was in when he met Jennifer Truelove, former child star who had her own television series at the age of eight. Ten years his senior and then a grieving widow, he always thought the most difficult thing he had ever done was persuading her to marry him. But the objections her family had raised were the very things that stopped him leaving her when the marriage became an inconvenience.

So Ted lives in Manhattan and produces third-rate TV reality shows. His wife tolerates him; Carlsen, the butler, despises him and he has two mistresses, one he wants, the other he wants rid of. Life doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Until a spec. script is left at the apartment which Jennifer wants to produce as her next series. Ted tries to dissuade her, putting every obstacle in her way but eventually agrees to read the script.

The next day has the making of a catastrophe. Ted's intern, Joni, tells him she is pregnant and at the executive meeting he is told that the public think the TV show, 'Living with another man's wife', is faked. But Ted is a quick thinker, especially if he can use people and puts forward a new format for the show - celebrity husband swap - and says that he and Jennifer will do the first show. Back home that night Ted persuades Jennifer into taking part by promising that the company will produce the new TV series and she can spend the next five years in the South of France. “Quid pro quo, babes.”

The couple that Ted and Jennifer will swap with are Joel and Carrie-Anne Bullock and they live in the Bronx with Timmy their ten-year old disabled son. Carrie-Anne is the mistresses Ted wants to get rid of. He phones and tells her she can spend two weeks with him in New York living the high life by taking part in the show. What he is actually doing is following the murder planned in the spec. script.

Joel and Carrie-Anne are a pretty hopeless couple. He is unemployed, she dreams her life away in front of the TV, imagining that she can be an actress and Timmy sits and stares out of the window.

Filming starts. Carrie-Anne arrives at the apartment in New York and is greeted by Carlsen. Overwhelmed and over-awed she mistakes Carlsen's proffered help as a put-down. She spends all day watching TV, or acting out scenes in front of her mirror; demands hamburgers for dinner and is generally out of her depth. Ted has hidden a camera in a statue in the bedroom and is recording these scenes. Right after a formal dinner party at which Carrie-Anne has been a complete failure, he hits pay dirt with what he finds.

Jennifer cannot believe the situation she finds herself in, accuses Joel of being an actor, and finally decides that she has been set up so that her husband can have an affair, but she does take over and change the lives of both Joel and Timmy. One evening Jennifer brings out a bottle of bourbon and she and Joel sit and talk. She tells him about her first husband and then admits she doesn't know why she married Ted. Then she tells Joel that he has all the appearance of a man who is not loved. He follows her up to the bedroom and asks how she knows. She tells him it is like looking in a mirror. They go to bed together and because she is old enough to be his mother she says that there will be no promises, no tomorrows and no regrets. He promises that, if Ted divorces her, he will swear they have never slept together.

Changeover day. Carlsen allows Carrie-Anne to dismiss him. But she has no idea what to do in the kitchen so orders a pizza for dinner. She is even eating it out of the box when Ted arrives home. The apartment soon looks like the tip she left and Ted cannot wait until she leaves.

Carlsen arrives at the Bullock residence and takes over. He observes that Timmy is not so much backwards as bored and takes him under his wing. Carlsen also discovers that Joel is secretly writing in the attic and takes away his novel to show Jennifer.

When the two weeks is up Timmy is taken to a special camp in the country, and the wives return home. Jennifer and Carlsen are horrified at the state of the apartment, which Ted has made worse, and Ted persuades her to go to the country until the place has been cleaned.

Ted then phones Carrie-Anne and tells her that some of the executives believe she has talent and he wants to do a screen test. He asks her to get rid of Joel for a night. Ted gives himself an alibi at a theatre then drives to the Bronx. He tries to get Carrie-Anne to act out a scene where Joel is threatening to kill her. Eventually he gets her to phone his office and leave a message on his answer phone. Then he shoots her with Joel's hunting rifle and leaves. He drives straight to the country house, breaks in but finds that Jennifer is not there. He hides the rifle where it will be found in the bushes.

Jennifer phones Joel to speak to him about the novel, they arrange to meet at her country house. Joel runs out of gasoline, but has no money. Jennifer comes to meet him and they book into a motel together.

Back in New York Jennifer demands Ted gives her the script for her new series. Their argument is interrupted by Carlsen telling them Joel has been arrested. Ted runs off to the office. Jennifer confesses that she and Joel were in a motel and wants to go to the police. Carlsen suggests they pick up the child first.

Ted is being questioned by Detective Steve Malone. He plays the message from Carrie-Anne and says that she was afraid of Joel. He is also secretly editing the video tape to prove his assertion.

Jennifer goes to see Detective Malone and tells him the truth.

Carlsen, who is teaching Timmy to play the piano, is telephoned by the housekeeper who tells him they have found a rifle hidden in the grounds. He telephones Malone and informs him of this fact.

Jennifer returns home and discusses the case with Carlsen. She has a feeling of deja vue about it and when Carlsen says he does not see Joel as a jealous husband, Jennifer realises that the murder has copied the script. She telephones Ted's office but the script has been shredded. Carlsen then owns up that it was he who wrote the script and produces another copy. He also admits that he wanted Jennifer to return to the South of France, a place where he had been so happy.

Detective Malone is in Ted's office where Ted is playing him the doctored voice recording in which she admits to being scared of Joel. But the detective is not convinced. Ted also tells the detective that Jennifer is 'too old for sex'.

Jennifer and Carlsen take the script of The Affair of the Jealous Husband to Detective Malone and try to persuade him that Ted has been copying it. During this conversation that Malone finds out about the pre-nuptial agreement. If Ted divorces Jennifer he gets nothing, if she divorces him, he gets a big pay off.

Malone interrogates Joel who admits he has been sleeping with Jennifer.

However, Malone is not convinced by Ted's evidence and discusses it with his superior, Lennon. He says he suspects Carlsen, but Lennon tells him Carlsen has an alibi for the night in question. Lennon tells him to scare Ted a little.

Malone visits Ted's office with two uniformed men. Joni is nervous and sick. When she sees Ted coming out of his office accompanied by the uniformed officers,she falls to the ground suffering a haemorrhage. Ted runs to her, admitting that he loves her. Malone arrests Ted for Carrie-Anne's murder.

Finally, Jennifer, Carlsen and Joel are living in the South of France discussing scripts for Jennifer's new series. Timmy is learning the piano, Carlsen says he wants to direct some of the episodes, and Joel asks Jennifer to marry him. She refuses, saying that she is happy the way they are, no promises, no tomorrows, no regrets.