A struggling journalist covering the L.A. party circuit ponders her price while writing a feature about a high-class hooker in David’s misfired follow-up to Party Girl
. Emma Swanson, hungry for a promotion at Substance
—a local glam rag—is young, ambitious and frustrated with her lowly beat. While researching a potential cover story on yuppie hooking, she meets gorgeous if bitchy call girl Jessica Davis, who introduces Emma to her contemporary version of the world’s oldest profession. As Emma’s story looks like it might come together (and Jessica showers Emma with expensive gifts), one of Jessica’s friends offers Emma the editor-in-chief spot at a magazine he’s about to launch. The catch: she’s got to give him the hooker story. What follows is a moralizing journey of self-discovery, replete with a Michael Toms–assisted epiphany. David sets up some interesting parallels between selling your soul and selling your body, but the narrative comes off too lightweight and hokily insidery (Ron Burkle is name-checked) to really deliver on them. (May)
