LIFETIME MOVIE: "Flirting w/Forty"

Saturday night at 9, Lifetime offers "Flirting with Forty," the story of a divorced mother (Heather Locklear) who is turning 40.

Her best friend, played by Vanessa Williams (not "Ugly Betty" Vanessa, the other one) gives her a first-class ticket to Hawaii (mental note: must upgrade to better friends) where she meets a 28-year-old hunk (played by Robert Buckley, the cougar bait on "Lipstick Jungle") and they fall madly in love.

Some complications, (mean ex-husband, hunk won't come to the mainland, her friends think she's crazy, blah blah blah) and she throws off her sweats, gets a backbone and learns life can begin at 40.

It's perfectly charming.

But two quibbles:

1) Heather Locklear looks good but she looks like what she is, which is flirting with 50. (She's 47.) In fact, I don't see why this movie couldn't be called Flirting with 50. Isn't 50 the new 30? Is it really beyond imagination that hot young guy would go after older woman of 50? Ahem, Demi (46), Ashton (30). Heather would have looked better and I wouldn't have been so distracted trying to figure out if I was being mean or if it was the drugs that caused her puffiness or if she just didn't look 40. And, btw, at 40 or 50 she could use some toning. The girl's too skinny. (But don't get all Madonna either, please.)

2) I'm tired of the sensible black best friend. Really. I'm all for diversity in film and I appreciate the effort Lifetime, but if the black role is the same part all the time, it's not a step forward. Alicia Keys did it in "The Nanny Diaries" for Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Hudson did it for Sarah Jessica Parker in the movie version of "Sex and the City." Those are only the most recent examples.

At least Vanessa wasn't sassy. And she did buy her that ticket.