Tearful Hollywood wrongdoer wants in (8)
I believe the answer is:
lacrimal
'in' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are adjectives, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'tearful hollywood wrongdoer' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'hollywood' could be 'la' (Hollywood is a neighbourhood of Los Angeles) and 'la' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'wants' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for lacrimal that I've seen is " concerned with tears?".)