So is Divorce Party a novel about a husband and wife who plan to announce their divorce at a party to celebrate their 35th anniversary?

Or is it a movie comedy to be made by Jennifer Aniston?

Or is Divorce Party a television reality show that will show a husband and wife following divorce, and then ask audience members American Idol-style to vote on which spouse was responsible for the breaking up? The “winning” spouse, the one who is not voted as responsible, will win cash.

The answer is that it’s all three.

The novel, written by Laura Dave, is set in Montauk, at the end of Long Island, and it’s about the end of a marriage. As the book puts it, it looks at “the moment toward the end … when you realize that there is something behind this person’s eyes that you were never able to touch, no matter how hard you tried. You can only guess at it, where things really end … where they really begin…”

A second story line follows the divorcing couple’s son, who is about to introduce his commitment-phobic fiancée, no doubt to be played by Jennifer Aniston in the movie.

The movie? Aniston and her partner, Kristin Hahn, optioned the novel before it was even published. If things move forward, Aniston will star in the film, which will be made at Universal and released in 2010. "We're drawn to stories about people finding their voice and finding their way,” she told Variety.

But she turns 40 next year, so Aniston will either have to play a cougar dating a younger man, or change the script to make it a 40th anniversary party.

And that reality TV show? Not nearly so high brow.

The third pilot has been been shot in Dallas for Divorce Party, which was created by Bobby Goldstein, a former divorce lawyer who is behind such classy WB reality shows as Cheaters: Totally Busted?

That’s a show where a spouse confronts another spouse about infidelity. A host on the show, Jerry Greco, was stabbed once in the resulting confrontation, and now wears a Kevlar vest.

The Divorce Party episodes will no doubt be predicated on horrible, fractious divorces, the ones where husband and wife cannot stand the sight of each other.

After (probably pretty unattractive) footage has been gathered on both husband and wife, the show will throw a party to stage a confrontation between husband and wife. As Goldstein’s partner, Gene Street, said, “We get them all together and, boom, wait for the fireworks.”

It may be riveting, like watching a car accident, but for any woman who has already been through a divorce, it may not be very illuminating. Instead let’s go back to Divorce Party, the novel.

It’s reassuring to know that in this elegant and sensitive little novel the word “lawyers” does not appear once. And the only court to make an appearance is a tennis court.