•     Two reporters at the L.A. Times.

•     MEG BALDWIN works in Metro covering hard news. If there's a vicious murder or a politician being endicted, she's there. Meg is an extremely good writer, smart, and terribly serious. She is always looking for that one big story. She worships Bob Woodward.

•     RANDALL TYLER works in Calendar covering showbiz. For the sake of his art, he suffers through a vast parade of glitzy Hollywood openings and endless interviews with movie stars. He's a bit of a gadfly with a wicked sense of humor who couldn't care less about journalism. He openly uses his column to give favors and get favors. He's the most popular writer on the paper. He worships himself.

 Staff meeting. A fight for space, as usual. The editor, Jay, moderates. A studio head has announced plans to run for Mayor. Is it a showbiz Calendar story or a hard hitting Metro story? Randall wins the plum assignment of interviewing him. Meg is jealous. This is an old rivalry, but she keeps it to herself. Jay sees her disappointment and gives her another assignment, interviewing Police Chief Morgan who is also running for Mayor.

 Randall is attracted to Meg and constantly hits on her, but she refuses to take him seriously. He stops at her desk later and tries to chat, but she's not in a good mood. She tells him he's not a real writer, he's just a blatantly manipulative gossip columnist. He insists that no one reads Metro unless they want to get depressed. "Most of the readers skip right to my column," he says. "They want to hear about fabulousness, not about corruption."

 Back at his desk, Randall goes through his mail. The stack is enormous - publicity packages about everything, and invitations to parties and junkets. 90% is thrown in the trash. One envelope contains an extremely sexy shot of an actress named Vicci Edwards who wants an interview. Randall throws away the resume and sticks the picture up on his wall. Meg shows up in a better mood but sees the picture, makes a snide comment, and leaves.

 Meg and Randall interview their candidates. Chief Morgan smokes big cigars and makes a pass at Meg. The studio chief promises a film deal to Randall if he writes something nice. Both articles are printed the next day. Meg's is negative, Randall's is positive.

 Meg reads her story about Morgan and realizes that a whole section is missing. She corners Jay, who admits he cut out the offending paragraph about the police chief's machoism because it was opinionated and unsubstantiated. She tells him that he grabbed her breast. He tells her to come up with bigger evidence than that.

 Meg doesn't appreciate the joke. She gets a call from Chief Morgan. He is gracious about her article and insists that she needs to get to know him better. He asks her out to dinner. Reluctantly, she agrees.

 Randall goes through his mail and finds an unmarked video tape. He goes to the Times private screening room and looks at the tape. It is a couple having loud sex, so he quickly turns down the sound. He almost stops the tape when something obscene happens that definitely gets his attention. He doesn't know who the guy is but he recognizes the girl as the actress stuck on his office wall. He looks in the videotape box and finds a note - "Now will you interview me?" It's signed "Vicci" and there's a phone number. He immediately calls her. They agree to meet for drinks at a bar near her house.

 In the Times parking lot, Randall and Meg wave goodbye to each other as they each head off towards their dates.

 Randall is having drinks with Vicci Edwards. She insists she's a good actress and starts rattling off all her serious credits. He isn't sure if he believes her, but he plays along. Then she mentions that she thinks her life is in danger because of that tape she sent him. She thinks an article about her in the Times might make it more difficult for them to get her since she would be a celebrity. She won't explain who "they" are. Randall decides she's a paranoid bimbo, but a cute one. He tells her that he's not sure there's enough of a story. She says "I'll do anything." Randall grins. They leave the bar extremely fast and head for her place.

 Meg has to cancel her dinner with Police Chief Morgan. She's been assigned to cover the murder of a prostitute. She leaves a message on Morgan's answer machine. She scavenges the crime scene and finds a clue that the police seem to have missed - a cigar butt - the kind Morgan smokes. She shows it to an officer who says that it's nothing since the chief had been there earlier.

 Meg writes about her night and Randall writes about his, both leaving out important details. Her article about the murder concerns police refusing to protect prostitutes. His article about Vicci is small, barely a mention in a long column. People in Hollywood ask about her, and he gives her number to the legit ones. Vicci doesn't return their calls, or his.

 Meg finally has her date with Chief Morgan. He's tearing into red meat; she's eating a salad. She keeps acting like a reporter; he keeps trying to get her to loosen up. After all, he's not such a bad guy when you get to know him.

 On his way home from work, Randall finds himself cruising past the bar he went to with Vicci. To his delight, Vicci comes out, gets in a car, and drives off. He follows her.

 Chief Morgan's beeper goes off. He takes the call and excuses himself; there's a crime scene to get to. He offers Meg a ride home, but she declines and gets in a cab. On a hunch, she asks the cab driver to follow Morgan.

 Randall follows Vicci to her home, a small bungalow in Venice, where he parks and watches the sunset behind the canals. Moments later, he sees Chief Morgan pull up to Vicci's bungalow and go to the door. After a small argument, Vicci lets Morgan in. Suddenly, Meg pulls up in her cab and parks right behind Randall. He turns around. They see each other, get out of their cars, and meet half way.

 She whispers "What are you doing here?"

 "I'm working on a story. What are you doing here?"

 "I'm working on a story. I'm following the guy who just went in that house. I think he's dangerous."

 "You're kidding! I'm following that actress because she told me her life was in danger."

 Randall and Meg sneak up on the house just in time to hear a scream. Randall breaks in the door. They hear a window smash. They both rush in. Vicci is lying on the floor unconscious. They hear a car start. Meg runs to the front door and sees Morgan's car pull away. Randall dials 911.

 Staff meeting. Randall and Meg tell their stories to their stunned editor. Randall insists that it's his story, since he already wrote about the girl. Meg insists that it was Chief Morgan in the car, but Randall says he didn't get a good enough look to identify him. Jay orders them to work on the story together, to share a byline, and that's that.

 Randall and Meg are now forced to share each other's company. They go to interview Vicci in the hospital. She is recovering from a slight concussion and doing well. She denies knowing Morgan, saying she wasn't attacked at all, she just fell. She admits to a shady past; that she used to sell sex to buy drugs. She says she has a lot of potential enemies. She's obviously very scared and probably lying.

 Meg and Randall go to the neighborhood bar. They agree that Vicci is in trouble, but she's not a witness they can share with Jay. Meg thinks she should hire a lawyer.

 "Great," replies Randall. "How's she going to pay a lawyer? She's broke. In order to get the money to hire a lawyer, she'd have to go out on the street and sell her body again, probably to another lawyer. Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul. The first lawyer is probably better off. At least he gets some magnificent sex."

 "What makes you think she's so magnificent?"

 "I, um, uh, saw one of her earlier films."

 He offers to show it to her, but Meg is disgusted with Randall as normal. Meg's beeper goes off. She excuses herself to make a call. When she returns, she informs Randall that "Another woman has been murdered. Her body was found in Griffith Park. I've got to go. You want to tag along and see what a real reporter does?"

 Meg and Randall arrive at the crime scene. There is a lot of blood. For the first time in his life, Randall finds himself with absolutely nothing funny to say. He is disgusted and bored and has a screening to get to. "Boy, am I glad we came is seperate cars," he says before heading off.

 Meg doesn't even notice he's gone. She goes about her job cooly and professionally, looking at the body, interviewing the kids who found it, and talking to the first officer on the scene.

 Chief Morgan shows up with his usual cigar. After viewing the body, he goes right up to Meg and says "I owe you the rest of a dinner little lady."

 "This makes you hungry?" she replies. "Great, I really want to write about your eating habits."

 She asks him if he knew the victim. No response. She asks him if he knows an actress named Vicci. No response. The body is taken away.

 Vicci is released from the hospital. When she arrives home, she peeks in one of her windows first. She sees that there's somebody in there waiting for her. She leaves.

 At work the next day, Randall decides to do some research. He tries to find Vicci, calling the hospital and her home. He goes on-line with his computer, checking a database to find the films that Vicci appeared in. It turns out she had small parts in a lot of movies. He prints out the list and faxes it to a video store.

 On her way to work, Meg is stopped by the LAPD. One of the officers goes through her purse and pulls out a vial of what looks like cocaine. Outraged, Meg denies knowing it was there. While being handcuffed, she claims to be a friend of Chief Morgan. "I know," says the officer.

 A stack of videos is delivered to the Times and Randall heads to the screening room to pour through them. He fast forwards through the tapes till he finds a mad, passionate love scene with an actor he thinks he knows. He looks on the cassette box. "Brandon Burke," he says as he goes to his desk, searches through his rolodex, and makes a call.

 Jay bails out Meg, who is livid. She blames the police chief. "I know it's unbelievable," she claims, "but I'm sure it's all a frame-up so I'll get off his case."

 "I haven't fired you," says Jay, "so I guess I must believe you."

 Randall is dining at a fabulous restaurant with Brandon Burke. He asks Burke what he knows about Vicci. Burke gets a faraway look in his eyes. He has no idea where she is. "She was very mysterious," says Burke. "She kept to herself. I'll tell you one thing. She was talented. She's going to be a star some day."

 Randall comes home to two surprises. His apartment has been torn apart, and Vicci is sleeping on what's left of his sofa. He wakes her up and asks what's going on.

 She says that his place looked like this when she arrived. "As soon as I saw your living room, I knew I was safe. I mean obviously they've already been here and didn't find me." He lets her spend the night.

 At the Times, Meg and Randall try to convince Jay that they've got a story, but he is very disappointed in them. Besides, the serial killer has been caught in action. Jay shows them the mock up of the new headline, "KILLER CAUGHT IN STING OPERATION." There's a smiling picture of Morgan conducting the arrest personally. It's a public relations coup that could win him the election.

 Meg and Randall walk away from Jay's office depressed. They are both lamenting their lack of evidence when Meg perks up.

 "Do you still have a copy of that video you told me about?"

 "Yes, it's in my desk."

 "It's the only clue we've got. I want to see it."

 Randall escorts Meg to the video screening room. He tries to be the perfect host. Having Meg alone is a dream come true. Too bad that she's there for such a peculiar reason.

 "Are you sure you want to see this?"

 "I'm a big girl, I can take it."

 He puts the tape on. Meg is fascinated as she stares at the TV screen.

 "That's Morgan!"

 "What?"

 "That guy is police chief Morgan. Don't you recognize him? I've been writing about him for weeks. His picture's been all over the Metro section."

 "I told you I don't read Metro and I wasn't kidding. I couldn't care less about stuff like that."

 "I don't believe you've had this all the time. This isn't a porno film, it's obviously from Morgan's private collection. This is evidence."

 "Maybe we'll win a Pulitzer prize."

 Subconsciously, they've been listening to groans from the video. They both look at the screen. Then they look away. Then they look at each other. They almost kiss, and then are both extremely embarrassed by their actions. "Look, we've got to talk to Vicci," says Meg. "Do you know where she is?" Blushing, Randall nods.

 Back at his place, Meg lays it on the line to Vicci. The paper will publish the picture of her with Morgan in the video. She may as well tell the whole truth. Her life will certainly be in less danger if Morgan is put away. Randall promises to protect her and help her, somehow. She agrees to testify against Morgan.

 Back at the Times, in true Woodward/Bernstein fashion, Meg and Randall each head for their desks to write.

 The presses roll with their story. The headline reads POLICE CHIEF ASSAULTS ACTRESS. They've both made it to the front page of the paper. They share the byline.

 Morgan resigns in disgrace. The elections are held. The studio head becomes mayor.

 At the next staff meeting, Jay is ecstatic and offers Meg and Randall their own regular column. Randall says he's got to sleep on it. As usual, Meg is disgusted with Randall's dirty mind, but she agrees to meet him later at a screening.

 That night, Randall and Meg come out of a movie theater and look up at the marquee. The film is starring Vicci Edwards, whose name appears in big lights. It's a major studio production.

 "The Mayor owed you one favor, and you used it to get her that part?"

 "Yep."

 She looks at him with new found respect as they walk down the street together, arguing about their next story.