JANET Evanovich struck gold when she created a romantic crime comedy novel series, 18 to date plus a few slim bagatelles to keep the cash flowing, about Stephanie Plum working at bringing in skips for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bond business.

It was only a matter of time before somebody bought a film franchise on them. Eye candy Katherine Heigl, serving as executive producer, also plays Steph in perhaps an acting career pinnacle. The novels are formula, mistakes and minor mishaps taking her to the brink of calamity from which one of two babe-magnets in her life, police detective Joe (Jason O’Mara) and rent-a-muscle ex-Special Forces Ranger (Daniel Sunjata) will arrive in the nick of time to rescue her.

My favorite characters in Evanovich’s books (and I confess to having smiled at all 18 of them) are Steph’s Grandma Mazur (Debbie Reynolds) passionate about funerals and heavy handguns, and Lula, Steph’s overweight, street-wise, black, reformed hooker co-worker.

“One For The Money” scores 10 on anybody’s idiot-meter, yet can make you laugh while wondering why. Will 17 more Steph stories be filmed? She does work better on paper.

At Hoyts and Limelight