The Spare Wife (2008)

Impeccably coiffed widow Ponce Morris — a helpmate and ''professional friend'' to all her fabulously rich New York peers — has been shoved onto her perfectly toned ass. A young journalist has discovered Ponce's affair with a famous fertility doctor, and try as she might to rein in the situation, Ponce only makes it worse. If the plot of The Spare Wife is a trifle predictable, that's a small price to pay for Alex Witchel's Manolo-sharp send-up of Manhattan high society. The fact that many characters bear more than a fleeting resemblance to real New Yorkers (is that Tom Wolfe?) makes it all the more delicious. B