Diplomacy discarded in Ullman's funny 'Trailer'

By Mike Duffy
Knight Ridder News Service

Jump back, political correctness.

Ruby Romaine is ranting again. She's the indomitable diva of Hollywood kvetching, a rude-attitude gossipmonger of the old cruel school.

But hey, Ruby, didn't you used to be Tracey Ullman?

Yep, it's the masterful comic chameleon under all that blue eye shadow and the heavily sprayed, honeycomb pile of Ruby hair.

Ullman is one very talented and funny honey.

And Ruby Romaine, the hilariously undiplomatic, chain-smoking queen of cantankerous film studio makeup artists, has become one of her most amusing, bodaciously forthright alter egos.

Need proof? Just check out the misanthropic merriment and pop culture-skewering humor at the heart of "Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales," which premiered Saturday on HBO (various times and dates; check listings). It's delightfully tart, caustically smart and offers the Emmy Award-winning comedian and actress the chance to really get into a Ruby groove.

Unlike "The Tracey Ullman Show" or "Tracey Takes On" — Ullman's groundbreaking Fox sketch comedy series of the late 1980s and her more recent character comedy tour de force — "Trailer Tales" isn't a Tilt-A-Whirl of her various characters.

There's only a brief glimpse of Ullman as a black hip-hop singer and as a cranky Russian neighbor.

From rambunctious start to dizzy finish, "Trailer Tales" is all about the cockeyed world of Ruby Romaine as she holds forth in the hair-and-makeup trailer on the back lot of a Hollywood studio. In the first episode, Ruby busily chats up Debbie Reynolds, who displays her own playfully irreverent celebrity flair for the sly wisecrack.

Ruby encounters a string of fictional and real-life Hollywood celebrities, including Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm in the Middle") and a very spry Rose Marie ("The Dick Van Dyke Show").

Ullman's rare comic gift is being able to thoroughly submerge herself within the characters she portrays, male or female.

There's never a hint of hey-look-at-me self-consciousness, no wink-wink creation of hipper-than-thou ironic distance. That's not Tracey Ullman working on Debbie Reynolds' makeup and hair. It really is some crazy funny old lady named Ruby Romaine.