The Murder of Princess Diana is a made-for-TV movie only a conspiracy theorist could love. That and a network executive looking for ratings.

Ten years after her death in a Paris car crash, the cause behind Diana's untimely end remains elusive. Government panels (the next one convenes in October) have termed it a tragic accident. Others are not so quick to dismiss it innocently.

Based on the speculative bestseller by Noel Botham, Murder contends that the princess of Wales was killed because she was pregnant with the biracial baby of her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. It argues that the powers that be in England couldn't have the half-sibling of the future king be a Muslim hybrid.

Does it make sense? Not really. But it does make for paranoid television.

The story unfolds through the eyes of American journalist Rachel Visco (Jennifer Morrison), a hard-driving reporter working for a London tabloid who gets a tip that Diana is going to Paris and will have a "major" announcement. Rachel convinces her editors to let her fly to France and check into the Ritz, where the princess is staying. Almost immediately she notices that the swank hotel is crawling with spies from various countries.

Even the paparazzi seem overly aggressive, and when they follow Dodi and Diana as they leave the hotel that night, Rachel tags along. That's how she happens to be at the Paris tunnel when the crash occurs. Later, when the police blame the crash on the press (authorities also confiscate the film of the photographers), Rachel disputes it.

You know the rest: Suddenly her life is in danger. She's got at least one ally: ex-boyfriend- turned-French-police-detective Thomas Sylvestre (Grégori Derangère), who initially dismisses her suspicions as nonsense. Then he begins to look into the case (no autopsy or forensic report, no surveillance tapes of the accident scene) and is immediately put on leave by his superiors. Maybe Rachel was right.

This is the point at which The Murder of Princess Diana becomes a full-blown thriller. Both Rachel and Thomas are being followed. The latter is roughed up and threatened. Offices and homes are broken into and ransacked. Rachel's friends in the spy community implore her to "leave it alone."

Were there anomalies in Diana's death? Absolutely. Her body was embalmed before a proper autopsy could be conducted. But anomalies here equal a grassy knoll theory in Dallas: Suspicions are not hard proof.

The result is a movie that rests entirely on paranoia (Diana had predicted she would be killed in a car crash), and to that end it actually works. Morrison gets us to feel her character's tension. She even has an accident in the same tunnel.

Amid all the weeping hagiography on the anniversary of Diana's death, The Murder of a Princess takes a more harrowing tack. It may not be factual - Rachel Visco is a fictional invention - but it's certainly frightening.

The Murder of Princess Diana

• When and where: 7 p.m. Saturday, Lifetime Television. Repeats Sunday, Monday and Aug. 31

• What: A speculative look at how the Princess of Wales might have been murdered

Bob Saget

Those who have followed Bob Saget's career know that he has two distinct personalities: the mild-mannered sitcom star (Full House) and TV host (America's Funniest Home Videos), and the potty-mouthed entertainer (The Aristocrats).

It's the latter Saget on display in That Ain't Right, an hourlong stand-up gig that drops more F-bombs than Richard Pryor on his best day.

Saget's appeal is that he seems so harmless on the surface. Then he goes on a tear about sex, body parts, pets and, to the audience's delight, how he managed to survive eight years on Full House. The sexual references to the kids on the show and his adult co-stars never stop. Nor are his own teenage daughters and their friends exempted.

Saget is a funny guy, and when he's riffing on someone in the audience, it can be hilarious. But there's a limit to his range here, even when he grabs a guitar and does comic songs like Danny Tanner Was Not Gay.

The first five minutes is amusing, but he feels the need to pummel it into the ground.

You wish there was more observational humor about life in general, not just about his life (not everyone watched Full House). The result is an hour of stand-up that shocks you with its filth quotient, yet leaves you wanting more depth.

Bob Saget: That Ain't Right

• When and where: 8 p.m. Saturday, HBO. Repeats Aug. 30, 31, Sept. 4, 7, 10 and 30

• What: Blue humor from the seemingly mild-mannered comic

pearsonm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2592

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