The Write Stuff
"Authors Anonymous." (Key Art). ©Starz Digital Media.

“Authors Anonymous.” (Key Art). ©Starz Digital Media.

By ANGELA DAWSON

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD—Morrissey penned a tune that became a hit single in 1992 called “We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful.” That song could have served as the theme for a new mockumentary called “Authors Anonymous,” starring Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, Chris Klein, Teri Polo, Dylan Walsh, Jonathan Banks and the late Dennis Farina. They play a group of aspiring L.A. writers whose already tenuous connection is ripped apart when one of them gets an agent, followed by a book and movie deal.

Cuoco-Sweeting (Penny on “The Big Bang Theory”) plays a young writer who manages to sell her manuscript despite her limited knowledge of literature and lack of education. That modicum of success is enough to set the rest of the writers group in a tizzy, including her would-be boyfriend Henry Obert (Klein), who is stuck doing menial jobs because he can’t catch a break. Farina, in one of his final performances, delivers a memorable comedic turn as a Tom Clancy wannabe who decides to self-publish, with disastrous results.

Veteran TV and film director Ellie Kanner (“Crazylove,” “For the Love of Money”) helms “Authors Anonymous,” which is based on a screenplay by David Congalton. The comedy arrives in theaters, iTunes and On Demand Friday, April 18.