The Clara Harris story, 8:00 on CBS. Being from Clear Lake, I'm going to have to watch this. Anyone else? http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ae/tv/2823628 ...............Director Robert Dornhelm (Anne Frank: The Whole Story) opens and closes the film with the crime. Clear Lake orthodontist Clara Harris (Elizabeth Peña) runs over her husband David Harris (Brett Cullen) with her car. Not one or twice but three times. "Look at what you made me do!" she cries, bedecked, not so coincidentally, in a scarlet red gown. It is a bizarre scene, but Bobbi Bacha (Sela Ward), private eye for Blue Moon Investigations and narrator of this story, cautions us. "The biggest mistake America can make is to laugh at Clara Harris," she says. "Should Clara have run over her husband because he cheated? Of course not. Do I understand why she wanted to? You bet your ass I do." Now the story becomes as much Bobbi's as it does Clara's. We are taken back to their first meeting. Clara: "I think my husband is cheating on me." Bobbi: "Of course he is, darling. Come sit over here, honey." The two paint a picture of opposites, and thus are the standard bearers of this American love/hate story. Clara is mad for her husband and destroyed by the thought he could be sleeping with his receptionist. Bobbi has tripped down the marriage aisle before and holds in contempt the institution, in specific; men, in general, and anyone who does not see things her way. "All across America, families are hiding behind the same mask of baseball practice, Girl Scout cookies and Harry Potter secrets," she says. "Truth is, we're all living in fear and hiding behind our SUVs." Written with poison ink by Kimberlee Reed (based on Skip Hollandsworth's piece in Texas Monthly), Madness exposes marriage as a trust lottery with few winners. Yet the film also has nuance and humor, from its images of ice cream trucks roaming the streets of Friendswood to the happy, even comical music score, to the shot of a plump, bodice-bedecked Clara ready to get kinky if it will keep her husband's eyes from wandering. Ward gives Bobbi a Texas twang that Bobbi doesn't have but it works, especially when she's slinging "honeys" or trying to win over a daughter intent on proving Bobbi wrong, that marriage can work. The real Bobbi Bacha is thrilled with the result. "We're really pleased that the story was seen the way we see it," she told the Chronicle. "We see it as people going through horrible and difficult times due to adultery and divorce. We're glad this story is getting out because people don't realize how devastating this is." Today, she continues to work on her cynicism toward marriage. "The movie shows even to this day, 20 years later (after her divorce), I'm having problems with my daughter and her marriage," she said. "Divorce leaves lasting effects on people. When you find out your husband is cheating, you want to go kill him. Thank God I didn't do that." Today, she's trusting in Lucas. "Every day he's teaching me how to trust. I'm always waiting for him to leave, but he loves me. I'll wake up and my hair will be a wreck and he's like, 'You look so beautiful today.' He's just a wonderful guy. He teaches me there is love out there. "But I'll tell you this, I would not need a piece of paper to know that's there. Because marriage -- and I think that's what this story tells everyone -- really is an agreement between two people. It's not the title to a car or a deed to a house; a lot of women think they own their men."
