Hot-wired into the tabloid zeitgeist,Dirtis good, lurid fun. Courteney Cox, in a bold departure from Monica onFriends, stars as Lucy Spiller, editor ofDirtmagazine. Relentless, high-strung Lucy is part Ben Bradlee and part Bonnie Fuller. She's a stickler for journalistic integrity with a basic instinct for the scandalous "get." "There's actual reporting in what we do," she rallies her reporters. "The only defense we have is the truth." Lucy is saddled with a clichéd personal life (abandonment issues, intimacy issues, blah, blah, blah). She is way more fun to watch at work when she's blackmailing celebs to deliver scoops by threatening to reveal their sexual peccadilloes, stun-gunning one-night-stands, or betraying a loved one to score an exclusive, career-wrecking cover story. Her go-to photographer and best friend is Don Konkey (Ian Hart, an uncanny John Lennon inBackbeatandThe Hours and Times) a functioning schizophrenic prone to hallucinations, but who will do anything for Lucy, even sever his own finger to gain admittance to a hospital where an unblemished  Christian pop star is being mysteriously kept under wraps. Konkey is the voice and heart ofDirt. His introductory episode recaps are a highlight ("No offense, but you should be up on this by now," he states in episode 7). Waiting in the wings on Lucy's staff is Willa (Alex Breckenridge), young, green, and hungry. She becomes a much more provocative presence as she joins the dark side as the season progresses.Dirtcould use sharper writing, but it's savvy enough when it comes to parsing Hollywood-speak. A celebrity's so-called "exhaustion" is translated by Lucy to mean "rehab or a psychotic break."Dirtdrops A-list names (Clooney, Britney), but for a series set in Hollywood, it's light on actual celebrities (director David Fincher and a self-deprecating Christopher Knight and Adrienne Curry appear as themselves). Instead, we get unconvincing fictional celebrities such as wash-out actor Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart), who gets his shot at superstardom by making the same kind of pact with Lucy that John Cassavetes made with the coven inRosemary's Baby. Just one scoop begins a downward spiral for his sitcom-actress girlfriend (Laura Allen) and her best friend, an actress with an ill-timed pregnancy (Shannyn Sossamon). Also getting down and dirty are Rick Fox as a compromised basketball superstar, Wayne Brady as a cultured thug, and, in the season finale, Jennifer Aniston as Lucy's rival (and then some, although their much-hyped onscreen kiss is really much ado about nothing). An FX series,Dirtshovels on the network's envelope-pushing profane language and graphic sex scenes. It should clean up on DVD.--Donald Liebenson