What if, in addition to creating "The Dating Game" and hosting "The Gong Show", Chuck Barris was also a top government assassin? That's the premise behind the TV producer's 1984 "unauthorized" autobiography and the basis for George Clooney's directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

We're pretty sure Barris was kidding about being a hit man, but it's a good story, adapted brilliantly by Being John Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and directed with style and flair by first-timer Clooney. Sam Rockwell, in a star-making role, plays Barris, and Drew Barrymore plays his long-suffering girlfriend, Penny. Clooney himself plays Barris' CIA boss and Julia Roberts has an extended cameo as a sexy spy.

The movie has fun showing us how Barris' "secret life" intersected with the TV life we already knew about. Those trips to Europe Chuck chaperoned for "The Dating Game" contestants? Turns out they were just a cover for his covert missions.

But in a bigger sense, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is about that moment in life when you finally realize you're not ever going to be the great person you dreamed you'd be. Chuck is devastated when he realizes that despite his fame and fortune, being the King of Trash TV is the most he'll ever accomplish. Being a CIA hit man is just a metaphor for what Barris really was. In the film, Chuck is told that killing is the one thing he's really good at. But in real life, Barris realized the only thing he was really good at, was creating really bad television. Well, maybe not the only thing. He did write one hell of a memoir.
(c) Copyright 2003