The Real Howard Spitz

British director Vadim Jean helmed this British-Canadian family comedy about former private eye Howard Spitz (Kelsey Grammer), who writes hardboiled detective novels. Unfortunately, Spitz's creative juices are drying up. His agent Lou (Joseph Rutten) suggests a switch to self-help manuals, but after Howard meets children's author Theodora Winkle (Kay Tremblay) and gets input on kid lit from Samantha Kershaw (Genevieve Tessier), he begins writing about cow detective Crafty Cow, and the character is a success. However, Howard doesn't like children, so he hires an actor (Patrick McKenna) to substitute for him at public appearances. Howard, Samantha, and Samantha's single mom Laura (Amanda Donohoe) then leave on a trip to find Samantha's dad in L.A. Shown at the 1998 Mill Valley Film Festival.