Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) deliberately assigns police idiot Clouseau to the case, while secretly working behind the scenes to try and track the case himself, for the medal of honor. And the plot is extremely simple - the French football coach gets assassinated during a football game, and his Pink Panther diamond goes missing. It's an updated retelling however, with things like the Internet and Viagra worked into the plot. This movie is set early in Clouseau's career as an Inspector, prior to the first Sellers movie. Purists might call it blasphemy, but for the new generation, it might serve as a springboard introduction to the Sellers' version. But I'm glad to say that Steve Martin has taken this role on bravely, and brought a new, more in-your-face slapstick dimension to Clouseau. Peter Sellers owned the Clouseau role, and it is naturally a pair of big boots to fill.

Of course, many Pink Panther / Jacques Clouseau movies did deal with the pink diamond, but there are other tales weaved into the Clouseau mythos that did not.

The Pink Panther actually refers to an enormous pink diamond with a flaw in the shape of a panther, and not to Inspector Jacques Clouseau, but because of the iconic pink panther's appearance in the animated opening credits, along with the all too familiar theme by Henry Mancini, it's all too easy to associate one with the other.