"Age of Love" quickly proves one thing.

Even an "Australian tennis superstar" will do just about anything to be on television. Including signing up for an extraordinarily stupid "dating" show.

When "Age of Love" premieres tonight at 8 on NBC/Ch. 5, a graphic quickly tells viewers, "You're about to watch the ultimate dating experiment."

No, what you're about to watch is a rip-off of "The Bachelor" with a bit of a twist. Half the women whom 30-year-old Mark Philippoussis has to choose from are between the ages of (gasp!) 39 and 48; the other half are between the ages of 21 and 27.

I don't know. Maybe this is supposed to be a comedy. But if you laugh, you're laughing at these people, not with them.

Watching Philippoussis try not to react to all the "elderly" women he's introduced to in the first part of the show is sort of amusing.

"OK, I can see a pattern here. They're older. Than me," he says.

Gee, he must be some kind of genius.

Frankly, I can't figure out who is supposed to watch this show. It's obviously aimed at female viewers, but any self-respecting woman should be horribly offended by "Age of Love."

The catty, competitive behavior of these women ought to embarrass every member of their gender. The older women sound somewhat less than mature.

"Oh, a 30-year-old man just means great sex," says 46-year-old Jodie.

And 48-year-old Jennifer tells viewers that as women get older "sex definitely gets better."

Charming.

Every season of "The Bachelor" features women acting catty and childish. "Age of Love" pushes that along by intentionally setting up two rival groups.

It's like putting cats in a bag. It's awful. It's childish. It's atrocious.

There's a whole lot of women who ought to know better than calling each other names.

In these days of political correctness, there's not a more sexist show on the air than "Age of Love." Again, every woman in America ought to be offended.

IN FEBRUARY, NBC announced a six-week series about Victoria Beckham — a k a Posh Spice — moving to Los Angeles with her soccer-star husband, David Beckham, who signed with the L.A. Galaxy.

Instead of six half-hour episodes, however, the project has shrunk to one hourlong special titled "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America," which is scheduled to air on Monday, July 16.

I'm not saying that making this the Incredible Shrinking Celebrity Reality Show is a bad thing. It's just a thing.

---

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com