COX DIGS UP HOLLYWOOD `DIRT' IN NEW FX SHOW.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

`Dirt'' is filthy, but I mean that in an almost-good way.

``Dirt'' is obsessed with bad behavior in Hollywood and has no qualms about depicting it as luridly as you're likely to see on basic cable. HBO's ``Entourage'' is practically innocent by comparison.

Courteney Cox -- sweet, lovable Monica on ``Friends'' -- stars as Lucy Spiller, the ice-queen editor of two tabloids, one mainstream (a la People) and one hard-core (like, say, the Star). She's so consumed with her job that she has little time (or interest) for romantic human interaction, particularly when the technology exists to get the essential job done more efficiency.

Ian Hart co-stars as Don Konkey, a schizophrenic paparazzo who's great at getting the money shot, less accomplished at curbing his internal demons. Don's scenes are miniature surreal portraitures; he can only be calmed by Hawaiian music. Still, the fact that he can operate at such a high level with so much white noise buzzing in his skull makes him the putative empathetic character.

Lucy and Don pursue scoops unveiling Hollywood decadence that aren't even on the other tabloids' radar: A married basketball star's (former Laker Rick Fox) sexual peccadilloes, say, or a big star's (Shannyn Sossamon) unwanted pregnancy via an ignominious source. Lucy recruits struggling actors (such as Josh Stewart's Holt McLaren) to rat out the secrets of others (such as Laura Allen's Julia Mallory) to boost their own careers.

Much of ``Dirt'' is hyperbolic and over-the-top -- even the ostensibly clean-cut characters are free-basers and closeted gays. Not enough attention is paid to narrative logic: For example, big film and TV star Julia Mallory goes from being besieged by paparazzi at the premiere of her action flick to almost dying in a car accident to attending the funeral of someone who died before the wreck to being told, ``We need to get you back in the public eye'' -- all in the space of two episodes. By episode three, she's addicted to drugs and muffing lines on her sitcom to such an extent that she's worried about losing her job.

``Dirt'' is quite the wallow in decadence -- an acid, unsparing and stylishly over-the-top take on the entertainment industry and the backhanded star-making machinery therein.

DIRT - Three stars

What: Courteney Cox stars as the editor of a gossip magazine covering Hollywood's worst behavior.

Where: FX.

When: 10 tonight.

In a nutshell: Hyperbolic but arresting.