Whatever Happened to Lori Lovely?

McCoy (The Baker’s Daughter) spins an entertaining if derivative tale of a faded celebrity. In a framing device set in 1990, college student Lu Tibbott is “floundering” in her history classes, having changed majors multiple times in an effort to find out “who I wanted to be.” Desperate for a senior thesis topic, she latches onto the story of her aunt Lori Lovely, a onetime budding Hollywood starlet who left show business at 23 in 1969 to become a nun. Born Lucille Hickey in Pufftown, N.C., Lori moves to New York City at 18 to live with her sister and her husband and help at their photography studio while the young couple struggles to start a family. Dazzled by the “immortality” of fame, Lori auditions for a role as an extra in a musical. She’s then accepted at a school in London, where she lands the role of a lifetime in a musical film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Lori’s on-screen chemistry with heartthrob Lucas, who plays Romeo, skyrockets her to fame and leads to a tumultuous affair with her costar. McCoy ably evokes the glitter and grit of mid-century moviemaking, but the melodramatic story behind Lori’s retreat, which explains Lu’s own life as well, is not only predictable but notably similar to that of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. This one doesn’t quite stand on its own. Agent: Mollie Glick, CAA. (Sept.)