Tori Spelling's Natural Part

Mocked Actress Has Last Laugh on VH1

Tori Spelling wants us to know that she knows what we think of her.

She knows that our culture of star-gawkers dismisses her as a spoiled, pampered, C-list celebrity who now makes Lifetime movies and owes her entire career, and riches, to legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling. Or, as she calls him, Daddy.

And judging from her new, self-parodying VH1 series, "So Notorious," she's telling us we're right.

Good for her, and good for us as viewers. Spelling's "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude makes for highly entertaining television that delivers plenty of laughs, mainly at the expense of the former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star but also at celebrity culture in general.

Tori Spelling stars as Tori Spelling, but this is not a reality show, with cameras following her as she shops Rodeo Drive, dines at Spago and takes meetings. Instead it's a scripted show, and the characters who surround her are mainly fictionalized, including friends and her detached, eBay-obsessed mother, played with gusto by Loni Anderson (who, through the miracle of modern Beverly Hills medicine, has maintained the same face for decades).

In a great touch, Tori talks to her dad here only by a speakerphone, much like Charlie spoke to his angels in the Aaron Spelling-produced "Charlie's Angels." (He is voiced by an actor). In another clever ploy, every time she pulls up to the Spelling mansion, the theme songs from his shows "Dynasty" and "Charlie's Angels" blare.

With smart writing, courtesy of Tori's fellow executive producers, Chris Alberghini and Mike Chessler (whose credits include "Murphy Brown"), "Notorious" pulls a page from the "Seinfeld" script: Seemingly banal situations blow up into full-fledged chaos. Tomorrow's debut, for example, concludes with Tori's outrageous agent eating Sea-Monkeys off a Ritz cracker. Really.

The show has its flaws -- its myriad sex jokes are juvenile, the acting by the extras is uneven and the show moves at a too-frantic pace.

But all you Tori-haters, take note. Spelling shows some acting chops and better-than-decent comic timing. She charms in scenes in which she stumbles and bumbles around a hunky gaffer who's working on her new movie for the F Channel ("F" is for female, she tells us).

She's also is backed by two snarky co-stars: Brennan Hesser plays Janey, a judgmental real estate agent who constantly ribs Spelling, and Zachary Quinto as Sasan is a find as her friend who gets some of the better lines.

"I'm gay, Iranian and Muslim," Sasan says in the second episode. "All of my identities hate me. It's amazing my complexion is as fabulous as it is."

But it's Spelling herself who is the most uninhibited in poking fun of herself. The show opens with a montage of first dates in which it's clear that the boys are in it for a chance to audition for her dad, or in one case to bowl at the Spelling mansion.

Even Tori, when trying to demand respect from Janey, must admit to a silver-spoon career. "Why is it so hard to believe that I don't take handouts from my family, that I live off my own money . . . that I earned from being on my daddy's TV shows?"

Tori, you've got your own show now. It might not pull down "90210" dollars, but you can be proud to call it your own.

So Notorious (30 minutes) debuts Sunday night at 10 with back-to-back episodes on VH1.