Before She Was Rudy, Interrupted

After a decade away from the cameras doing silly stuff like getting a college degree, Keshia Knight Pulliam evidently figured it was time to give this show-biz thing another shot.

A couple of weeks ago, the youngest person to receive a best supporting actress Emmy nomination (as Rudy on “The Cosby Show”) dipped a toe back in the prime-time waters on the “Cosby” reunion special. But tonight Pulliam dives in with a starring role in the two-hour TV movie “What About Your Friends: Weekend Get-Away” (8 p.m., UPN).

Although the film is built upon a rather routine coming-of-age framework, there’s a hip-hop essence just peering around the edges that gives the movie some fresh angles and allows Pulliam an opportunity to charm viewers as a young adult.

Pulliam plays Temple, the well-to-do centerpiece of a trio of longtime girlfriends that includes middle-class Alex (“Baby Boy’s” Angell Conwell) and working-class Breena (“American Pie’s” Monica McSwain). The high school seniors are just getting their career plans in gear when they learn of a scholarship competition that could help them get a leg up on their hopes for the future.

The competition, which unfolds over a weekend on a college campus, brings out things in the girls and their friendship that threaten to tear them apart and send them home with their dreams in tatters.

Louis Gossett Jr. makes a brief appearance as dean of the college, and Kym E. Whitley is a strong presence as an overseer of the scholarship program, but the three young women show enough spark to carry the action and help you forget some improbable plot conceits.

There’s music, romance, tears of anger and tears of joy. Just another weekend on a college campus, right?