Last night I attended the glittering premiere of CNN's Planet in Peril 2, the second installment in the network's popular enviro-thriller franchise. Everyone was there, from Ali Velshi to Lainie Kazan. (Kazan is a recurring character on The Campbell Brown Show, where she plays the bossy mother-in-law.) And of course the three stars - Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and the sensational Lisa Ling - were in attendance.


The ravishing Lisa Ling, at last night's "green carpet" premiere.

The original Planet in Peril, starring Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Jeff Corwin, was a ratings winner, but was savaged by the press. Tom Shales acidly dubbed it "Three Men and a Baby Lemur." WWD mocked the "lack of sartorial imagination: too many black crew neck tees and not nearly enough v-necks."

The inevitable squabbles among the stars leaked to the press. Dr. Sanjay Gupta complained that he was saddled with too much of the medical jargon and not enough action. Privately he groused about playing "Hadji to Anderson's Jonny Quest." (Internally the film came to be known as Planet in Peril: Wrath of Gupta.) Christiane Amanpour lobbied CNN studio boss Jon Klein to add a female co-star, presumably herself.

The decision was made to elevate Dr. Sanjay Gupta to co-star status with Cooper and kill off Corwin. (More on that later.) Enter Ling, who positively smolders on screen.

The first fifteen minutes of this installment are virtually perfect, a master class in suspense. Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta are trapped in a tiny cell deep in Burundi's jungle. As the two men gnaw at the remains of what looks like an animal carcass, they begin bickering about "what happened" to Corwin:

Gupta: If you hadn't been so hung up on how you looked, you would have been able to save him.

Anderson: Dammit, Dr. Sanjay Gupta! Not every problem can be neatly diagnosed. Or - or - or remedied with a simple prescription.

Gupta: I'm a doctor, Anderson. I've taken an oath to do everything I can to save the patient.

Anderson: And I'm taking an oath to get the both of us out of here, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

They both look up at the single tiny window 20 feet above them. Neither man could possibly fit through.

That's when Ling makes an entrance so spectacular, audiences will instantly forget Kate Capshaw's iconic Temple of Doom entrance. Equal parts Lara Croft and Anna May Wong, Ling delivers a completely star-making performance, barely recognizable from the sunny Gal Friday she plays on Oprah. Here she's smart, funny and fearless.

The subplot about her husband (kidnapped by radical Icelandic real estate developers) would seem ridiculous, if not for her vulnerable and totally unselfconscious performance. (Her lack of makeup in striking contrast to her co-stars.) When she finally sings "Planet in Peril," in a forest clearing, the audience understands the inextricability between her personal emotional well-being and global survival. It's not just "our" planet that's in peril. (On the soundtrack, the title song is performed with signature bravado by Shirley Bassey. Ling's quieter version is, in a word, heartbreaking.)

SPOILER ALERT:

The biggest downside is the clunky explanation, via flashback, of Corwin's death. After Corwin is bitten by a kimodo dragon, Cooper rips off his t-shirt and fashions a tourniquet. The sun is beating down, though. So the wrapping of the tourniquet is interrupted so that Anderson can apply lotion to himself. Corwin bleeds to death.

The scenario is fairly implausible, bordering on camp. Director Charlie Moore would have served the film better had he gone full-bore comedy with the sequence. (And yes, you guessed right about what Cooper and Gupta are eating at the start of the film.)