'Tabloid' is ripped from the headlines

Perfect timing can be accidental, as is the case with "Tabloid," Errol Morris' random-seeming documentary about a headline-grabbing 1977 kidnapping that involved a beauty queen, a Mormon missionary and a little light bondage. It's funny, loony, thoroughly entertaining and, as it happens, helps illuminate some of today's juicy headlines.

"Tabloid" is a mostly affectionate portrait of Joyce McKinney, a spirited North Carolina bombshell who improbably fell for a doughy young Mormon named Kirk Anderson. He quickly vanished from her life -- or at least tried to. Imagine his surprise when McKinney found him in a London suburb, kidnapped him and chained him to a bed for three days of mandatory sex.

That's the version Britain's scandal sheets fed to a tickled-pink public; McKinney says she was rescuing Anderson from Mormon brainwashers. She's an unreliable narrator, the kind that Morris ("Standard Operating Procedure") has always loved, and she handily walks off with the director's heart and his movie. McKinney is a one-woman Southern charm offensive, chatty and endlessly quotable.

"Tabloid" turns unexpectedly topical when Morris interviews two British reporters who covered the story. Their methods included paying sources and even flying one to Mexico to avoid charges for divulging information. Together, they provide a glimpse into the same media culture that bred the nasty phone-hacking scandal currently engulfing News Corp. Their tales, including one about McKinney's possible suicide attempt, are told with chuckles and sneers.

The film ends with McKinney again making headlines for, of all things, cloning her dog. But the story continues. She has recently been showing up, at least once in disguise, at "Tabloid" screenings around the country.