Alan Alda

After the economy crash, the now unemployed Manhattan couple, decide to get away from the urban life and try the rural way of living.

After the workers at a luxury Central Park condominium discover that a billionaire has stolen their retirement, they plot the ultimate revenge: a heist to reclaim what he took.

In Washington, D.C., a reporter faces a possible jail sentence for outing a CIA agent and refusing to reveal her source. Thinking Pulitzer Prize and hoping to bring down a President, D.C. political columnist Rachel Armstrong writes that the President ignored the findings of a covert CIA operative when ordering air strikes against Venezuela. Rachel names the agent, Erica Van Doren, a woman whose young daughter is in Rachel's son's class at school. The government moves quickly to force Rachel to name her source. She's jailed for contempt when she refuses. She won't change her mind, and the days add up. Chaos descends on Van Doren's life as well. First Amendment versus national security, marriage and motherhood versus separation. What's the value of a principle? —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Rachel Armstrong is trying to balance her life as wife to novelist Ray Armstrong and "soccer mom" to adolescent Timmy Armstrong against the want to advance her career as an investigative journalist at the national news desk of the Capital Sun-Times newspaper. Her name within the profession may become more renowned when her editor, Bonnie Benjamin, decides to print the latest explosive story on which she has been working and for which many predict she will win a Pulitzer Prize. The story is that Erica Van Doren, the wife of Ambassador Oscar Van Doren who has been critical of the current administration, is a covert CIA operative who investigated and found conclusive evidence that the Venezuelan government was not responsible for a recent assassination attempt on US President Lyman. Erica's report was ignored by the White House, the US government which proceeded to bomb strategic Venezuelan sites in retaliation. Beyond exposing Erica's role, the story is not meant to be critical of her or Ambassador Van Doren per se but rather the White House for their inappropriate and potentially illegal behavior, which the newspaper sees as being in the same league as something like Watergate. The coincidental part of the story is that the Van Dorens' daughter Alison Van Doren is Timmy's classmate, although Rachel doesn't know the Van Doren parents personally and has only seen fellow soccer mom Erica in the past from afar in their respective volunteer work at the school. Although he OKs proceeding with the story, what makes the newspaper's chief counsel Avril Aaronson nervous is that Rachel has not divulged to him or anyone else at the newspaper her primary source, although Rachel, Bonnie and her staff have verified the story through secondary sources. The issue is is that it is considered treasonous for government officials to have provided Rachel this type of information, and thus the story could be problematic if Rachel's primary source is someone in the White House or within the CIA which is most likely the case. Although the story is meant to focus on the White House's actions and behaviors, it instead results in the two women in the center being the targets. Many of Erica's colleagues believe she knows who leaked the story to Rachel, she herself being under suspicion to support the views of her husband. The government, through the FBI which hires special prosecutor Patton Dubois, is determined for Rachel to reveal her source as a measure of national security, there being precedent in a 1972 case which ruled that national security trumps Rachel's First Amendment right to protect her source. The newspaper in turn hires high powered lawyer Albert Burnside to fight Rachel's case in front of a grand jury against Dubois. Rachel, who is as determined to keep her source a secret beyond the First Amendment issue as Dubois is as determined for her to reveal the source, may not be prepared for the consequences, which could be jail time for contempt for as long as she decides to hold out. —Huggo When reporter Rachel Armstrong writes a story that reveals the identity of a covert CIA operative, the government demands that Rachel reveal her source. She defies the special prosecutor and is thrown in jail. Meanwhile, her attorney, Albert Burnside argues her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. —yusufpiskin

Robert Kearns takes on the Detroit automakers who he claims stole his idea for the intermittent windshield wiper. Based on the true story of college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns' long battle with the U.S. automobile industry, Flash of Genius tells the tale of one man whose fight to receive recognition for his ingenuity would come at a heavy price. But this determined engineer refused to be silenced, and he took on the corporate titans in a battle that nobody thought he could win. The Kearns were a typical 1960s Detroit family, trying to live their version of the American Dream. Local university professor Bob married teacher Phyllis and, by their mid-thirties, had six kids who brought them a hectic but satisfying Midwestern existence. When Bob invents a device that would eventually be used by every car in the world, the Kearns think they have struck gold. But their aspirations are dashed after the auto giants who embraced Bob's creation unceremoniously shunned the man who invented it. Ignored, threatened and then buried in years of litigation, Bob is haunted by what was done to his family and their future. He becomes a man obsessed with justice and the conviction that his life's work-or for that matter, anyone's work-be acknowledged by those who stood to benefit. And while paying the toll for refusing to compromise his dignity, this everyday David will try the unthinkable: to bring Goliath to his knees. —Anonymous It's the early 1960s Detroit. Dr. Robert W. Kearns is a husband, father, engineering professor, and sometimes inventor. Out for a drive during a rainstorm, Bob, who suffered an eye injury during his honeymoon years earlier, wonders why his car's windshield wipers couldn't function more like the human eyelid in clearing away excess liquid whenever required so as to be able to see clearly at all times. As such, he goes about inventing windshield wipers that can operate at variable speeds for whatever the appropriate rain condition. He and his longtime friend, Gil Previck, who works in the automotive industry, patent his design. Protective of his intellectual property, Bob wants to manufacture and sell the product to the big auto makers. They learn that all the big players have been working on the idea for years - what the industry has coined the intermittent wiper - but that none of the auto makers has yet come close to a workable design. Macklin Tyler, an executive at Ford, shows interest in Bob's product. Getting what he believes is verbal contract from Tyler to proceed, Bob both provides a prototype to Ford and begins the process of finding a factory location. However, Bob and Gil later officially learn, after one non-returned phone call after another, that Ford decides not to proceed with them, but unofficially learn it's because they have stolen Bob's design and have manufactured the wiper themselves. Bob and Gil have different approaches in how to deal with Ford. Gil wants to move slowly in not alienating the industry, his customers. Bob, on the other hand, wants recognition that Ford stole his idea. Bob will find that most people who he looks to for help take an approach closer to Gil's, believing that Ford wields the power in time and money. As such, Bob is often alone in his fight against Ford. As Bob goes on his mission for what he considers justice, he will have to decide too how much is enough in the toll of what he's doing on his relationships with his wife Phyllis and his children, and by association their collective welfare, as well as his own health and mental well being. —Huggo

Up-and-coming sports reporter rescues a homeless man ("Champ") only to discover that he is, in fact, a boxing legend believed to have passed away. What begins as an opportunity to resurrect Champ's story and escape the shadow of his father's success becomes a personal journey as the ambitious reporter reexamines his own life and his relationship with his family. A young journalist comes to the aid of a homeless man who claims he is a former heavy weight title contender. Seeing a chance to redeem his struggling career, the writer's story of the champ's life raises questions about the past that will threaten all he holds dear. —Anonymous A young journalist, living in his famous father's shadow, gets his title shot when he writes a story about a former 1950's boxing contender who is homeless and living on the streets. As the journalist and retired boxer's stories unfold, we learn that not only is reality stranger than fiction, but fiction may be where we live our lives. —lichtenmeister

A biopic depicting the early years of legendary Director and aviator Howard Hughes' career from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s.

Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) is a Chicago advertising executive and alpha male. The mother of Nick Marshall was a Las Vegas showgirl. Raised by beautiful women who spoiled the boy as an adored mascot, and with tough casino men as role models (who treated women as nothing more than objects), the adult Nick is a chauvinist skilled at selling products to men and seducing women. Nick is famous for not lifting a finger at work and is surrounded by beautiful women who do all the heavy lifting for him, while he takes the credit. Annie (Sarah Paulson) is Nick's secretary, Stella (Diana-Maria Riva) is his maid, the doorman to his apartment building Flo (Loretta Devine). Coworkers Eve (Delta Burke), Dina (Lisa Edelstein), and Sue (Ana Gasteyer) work with him at his office. Nick's only male coworker is Morgan (Mark Feuerstein), who participates in Nick's skirt chasing contests. His conquests including local coffee attendant Lola (Marisa Tomei). Nick expects a promotion at the advertising firm Sloane Curtis. However, just as he thinks he's headed to a meeting for a promotion, his manager, Dan (Alan Alda), informs him that he is hiring the talents of Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt) instead, to broaden the firm's appeal to women. He says that women in the age group of 18 to 24 are the fastest growing consumer group, and they control the spending and hence the advertising dollars. Dan says that 10 years ago they were the best agency in town and now they are 3rd. Dan says that getting into woman's psyche is not really Nick's strength. Also, his estranged 15-year-old daughter Alex (Ashley Johnson) is spending two weeks with him while his ex-wife Gigi (Lauren Holly) goes on her honeymoon with her new husband Ted (Robert Briscoe Evans). Alex is embarrassed by Nick, and resents his being protective when he meets her much older boyfriend Cameron (Eric Balfour). Darcy tells her team that female driven advertising market is worth $40 Billion and Sloan Curtis' share of that pie is zero. Needing to prove himself to Darcy and Dan, Nick attempts to think of copy for a series of feminine products that Darcy distributed at the day's staff meeting. However, he slips and falls into his bathtub while holding an electric hairdryer, electrocuting himself. The next day, Nick wakes up able to understand his maid's thoughts as she cleans his apartment. Nick finds that Flo has lustful feelings towards him. As he walks through a park and encounters numerous women, he realizes that he can hear their thoughts, even those of a female poodle. This proves to be an epiphany for him when he hears the thoughts of his female co-workers (some of whom have slept with him and regretted it). Dina doesn't like Nick's disgusting jokes, Eve doesn't like when Nick comments on her eating habits, women think he wears too much aftershave, Annie feels that she got an Ivy League education and Nick has got her picking up his dry-cleaning and realizes that he cannot hear men's thoughts. Nick tells Morgan that he can hear women's thoughts. Morgan warns Nick that he sounds insane and cannot say this to anyone. When he goes to a previous therapist, Dr. Perkins (Bette Midler) (who also disliked him), she realizes his gift: "If Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, and you can speak Venutian, the world can be yours." Nick eavesdrops on women's thoughts and uses their ideas as his own, but also begin to develop real friendships with his co-workers. He corrects his off-hand comments and starts to appreciate women for who they are. He has sex with Lola, and using he thoughts as a guide, he satisfies her in bed, and she ends up declaring that Nick is a sex God. As Nick spends more time with Darcy, he is attracted to her. Darcy is going after the Nike, women's division account and this account will make her career at the agency. However, when he tries to get closer to his daughter, she resents him for trying after so many years of neglect. Nick learns that Alex wants to go to prom with Cameron, even though Nick knows that all Cameron wants to do is to have sex with her. Darcy tells Nick that going to the prom is all about the dress and asks Nick to take Alex shopping. Nick and Alex start to bond while he takes her shopping for a prom dress. Nick shrewdly suspects that Alex's boyfriend, who is considerably older than Alex, plans to sleep with her and then dump her. He tells her Cameron is not interested in her for who she is, just for what he can do with her in bed. Alex, thinking Nick is being over-protective and trying to sabotage her prom, rejects his advice. Nick steals most of Darcy's ideas and presents them to Dan as his own. Soon, Nick is the darling of the office women. Nick and Darcy begin to spend more time together, and ultimately, they kiss. When he manages to trump Darcy out of her idea for a new Nike ad campaign aimed at women (he had heard Darcy's pitch in her mind, and delivers it verbatim to the client in the meeting before Darcy could say anything), he later regrets his selfishness, especially as it leads to her being fired. Over time, Nick succeeds in repairing his relationships with female acquaintances, especially those at work. Nick loses his gift during a storm while trying to find a company secretary, Erin (Judy Greer), who (as his telepathic ability has shown him) is contemplating suicide. He offers her a position for which he had previously turned her down; she accepts. He is also reconciled with his daughter when her boyfriend rejects her. Nick finally visits Darcy and explains everything. She regains her job and Nick gets fired. But she forgives him, and agrees to save him from himself, to which he responds, "My hero".

A distraught man inadvertently takes a group of children hostage in a museum while a hungry, seasoned reporter tries to resurrect his career covering the story. Sam Baily, upset over losing his job, takes a natural history museum hostage. Max Brackett, journalist, is in the museum when this occurs and gets the scoop. The story spreads nationwide, and soon it is all anyone talks about. The story itself is the news, not the reason why or the real people behind it. —<freckles@vivid.net>

In a stand off in a busy city, a man threatens to kill himself, Detective Regis intervenes and stops the man, Detective Regis's team get the gun away from the man, turns out the gun was on safety. In the Orval office a man and woman are shown having sex. In a restroom in the White House in Washington D.C., a janitor finds the body of White House secretary Carla Town (Mary Moore). Homicide detective Harlan Regis (Wesley Snipes), whose apartment block is awaiting demolition in favor of a parking lot, is put on the case. At the White House, Regis is introduced to secret service chief Nick Spikings (Daniel Benzali), national security advisor Alvin Jordan (Alan Alda), and secret service agent Nina Chance (Diane Lane). Spikings assigns Nina to keep an eye on Regis. On the next day, after Regis checks out the White House, Nina tells him that she won a gold medal for sharpshooting in the 1988 Olympics. Regis and Nina discover that Carla had an appointment in New York City, and a flight from New York to the Virgin Islands, with no intention of returning to the USA. Coroner Jimmy Foley (Richard Blackburn) tells Regis and Nina that whoever had sex with Carla on the night of the murder used a condom, and left absolutely no DNA. Regis is told that White House janitor Cory Allen Luchessi (Tony Nappo) was unaccounted for on the night of the murder. Cory is questioned, and his words lead Regis to suspect that the secret service might be involved. That night, a man breaks into Regis's apartment, and tries to kill him. Whoever is behind the murder has bugged Regis's house, and is eavesdropping on everyone. In a picture of Carla, Regis sees secret service agent Burton Cash (Nigel Bennett), who is in charge of Kyle Neil (Tate Donovan), the son of president Jack Neil (Ronny Cox) and first lady Kitty Neil (Diane Baker). Jack has been trying to deal with a situation where Americans are being held hostage in North Korea, and some people think Jack is not handling it the right way. Some people think Jack should send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages, but Jack does not want to risk a potential second Korean War. Regis figures out that it was Kyle who had sex with Carla on the night of the murder. Spikings forbids Nina to have any more contact with Regis. At a dance club, Regis talks to a young woman who says that Kyle once bragged that he shared Carla with Jack. Carla's uncle's company, Brookline Associates, is Jack's leading East coast fundraiser, and Brookline also owns the apartment that Carla lived in. Regis discovers that Nina used to be the agent assigned to Kyle. That night, Regis goes to Nina's house, and asks her why she never told him that she used to be the agent on Kyle's detail. Nina explains that one night, she heard noises coming from Kyle's apartment, went in, and found Kyle beating up his girlfriend. That's when Nina asked to be reassigned. Nina was replaced by Burton Cash, and the secret service covered up the beating for Kyle so he wouldn't get arrested. On the next day, Spikings sends Agent Cooper (Tom Wright) to look for Nina, who successfully avoids Cooper. During a meeting at the White House, General Clark Tully (Harris Yulin) urges Jack to take action, and send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages, but Jack declines, prompting Tully to call Jack a criminal. Jack tells Tully to submit his resignation. That night, Nina tells Regis that Carla had an appointment in New York with Craig Nisker & Associates, who have sold 5 of the top 10 scandal memoirs of all time, and they know that the appointment would be a good motive for Kyle to kill Carla. Later that night, Nina and Regis meet at a restaurant, where Nina tells Regis that she has discovered that Jack and Kitty were in the White House at the time of the murder, not at Camp David like they said they were. Jack would have the same motive that Kyle would have. Upon being confronted by Regis, Kyle denies that he killed Carla, but he provides some information: among the bookings she made, Carla supposedly also ordered a car -- despite not having a driver's license. Nina has rented a hotel room to keep the secret service from finding her, but they do anyway, and Nina and Regis escape out the back door of the building. On the next day, Regis and Nina discover that Carla's appointment book was forged, and she never had any appointments. With some clues left by Jordan, Regis finds that Spikings has withheld several surveillance tapes from the night of the murder. Regis goes to Spikings' residence to question him; Spikings is willing to show the tapes to Regis, but Spikings is suddenly killed by a sniper. However, Regis and Nina escape with the tape. Later that day, Regis and Nina learn that Jordan is the killer, and Jordan has now framed Regis and Nina. Jordan engineered Carla Town's murder, hoping to get Jack accused of it, and force Jack into resigning, which would allow vice president Gordon Dylan (Chris Gillett) to assume office. Jordan, enraged that the hostages haven't been rescued, knows that Dylan would not be afraid to send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages, and Jordan believes that Jack's refusal to send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages makes Jack unfit to be president. Regis, Nina, and Regis's partner Stengel (Dennis Miller) enter the White House tunnels while Jordan still tries to make sure Dylan can take over as president. In the tunnels, Carl (Cliff McMullen), the sniper who killed Spikings for Jordan, shoots Stengel, and Nina kills Carl. Pursued by the Secret Service, Regis just barely manages to get in contact with Jack, and present him with the evidence of Jordan's conspiracy. Nina and Regis are grabbed, and in a hallway in the White House, there is a confrontation in which Jordan tries to shoot Jack, only for his shot to be intercepted by a handcuffed Nina, and Secret Service agents fatally shoot Jordan. Nina and Stengel are taken to a hospital, where they recover from their injuries. In gratitude for his rescue, Jack promises Regis that he'll look into the commission that bought Regis's building and wants to destroy it.

Mel Coplin (Ben Stiller) and his wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), live in New York, near Mel's neurotic, Hebrew, adoptive parents, Ed (George Segal) and Pearl Coplin (Mary Tyler Moore). Mel and Nancy have just had their first child, and they refuse to name their son until Mel can discover the identity of his biological parents. He assures her that once he knows who he really is, the right name for their boy will be a snap. Meanwhile Mel and Nancy's sex life has taken a brutal hit since the birth of their son. After an adoption agency employee locates his biological mother's name in a database, Mel decides to meet her personally. Tina (Tea Leoni), the sexy but highly incompetent adoption agency employee, decides to accompany Mel, Nancy, and the newborn on a trip to San Diego to meet Mel's biological mother. Tina is in the middle of a divorce; she is 30 years old and wants a baby of her own. Tina is finishing her dissertation (on the emotional and psychological impacts of the reunions) and will film the happy reunion of mother and child as part of her research. For this privilege, she's footing the bill. Mel's adoptive parents are left behind feeling abandoned by an ungrateful son. Ed says that his 60th birthday is coming up and he doesn't want Mel to miss it. Pearl cannot understand Mel's need to connect with his "roots", feeling that perhaps he feels that they were not good enough parents to him. The trip, of course, does not go as planned, and ends up becoming a tour of the United States. First, Mel is introduced to Valerie (Celia Weston), a blond Scandinavian woman with Confederate roots whose twin daughters are at least six inches taller than Mel. Valerie comes from an athletic family with Finnish and Scottish roots. They quickly realize that Valerie is not Mel's biological mother (as her son was born 2 years before Mel was born), and Tina scrambles to get the correct information from the agency database. Meanwhile, Nancy becomes jealous as Tina and Mel begin to flirt. Tina used to be an exotic dancer and that raises Nancy's anxiety further still. Tina and Mel playfully wrestle each other as Tina is into Indian wrestling as well. Next, the group heads to rural Michigan with the hope of meeting the man whose name appears as the person who delivered infant Mel to the adoption agency. The man, Fritz Boudreau (David Patrick Kelly), turns out to be a trucker with a violent streak. However, when he discovers that Mel might be his son, he becomes instantly friendly and lets Mel drive his semi-trailer truck, which Mel immediately crashes into a Post Office building. This leads to a run-in with two ATF agents, Tony (Josh Brolin) and Paul (Richard Jenkins), who are gay and in a relationship with each other. It is discovered that Tony and Nancy went to high school together. Charges are dismissed, and Fritz Boudreau tells Mel that he is not Mel's father, but only handled Mel's adoption because Mel's biological parents were incapacitated. Tina locates the current address of Mel's biological parents, which turns out to be in rural New Mexico. Tony and Paul surprise everyone by deciding to tag along on the trip. While Mel and Tina become close, Nancy finds herself flirting with Tony, who returns the compliment, causing friction. The trip through rural New Mexico is fraught with more problems. At last, the whole crowd descends on the front porch of Mel's true biological parents, Richard (Alan Alda) and Mary Schlichting (Lily Tomlin). They are asked to stay the night. While Richard and Mary are more than welcoming, Mel's biological brother Lonnie (Glenn Fitzgerald) is overly rude and jealous. It is during dinner that Mel discovers that Richard and Mary had to let Mel be adopted because they were in jail for making and distributing LSD in the late 1960s. Not only that, but Richard and Mary continue to manufacture LSD, as becomes apparent when Lonnie, in an attempt to dose Mel with acid at dinner, accidentally doses Paul, the ATF agent. In his drugged state Paul tries to arrest Richard and Mary but Lonnie knocks him out with a frying pan. They attempt to escape and decide to take Mel's car, hiding their supply of acid in the trunk. Mel's adoptive parents arrive but then change their minds and decide to leave, taking the wrong car. When they change their minds again and make a blind U-turn, the two families crash. Mel's adoptive parents are arrested while his biological parents escape to Mexico. Not realizing what has happened Mel recounts the stories from dinner to Nancy and they agree to name the baby Garcia. Called to the Sheriff's office to bail out Ed and Pearl, Mel refers to them as his parents, which they are surprised and happy to hear. The next day Paul explains the situation and is able to get Mel's parents released. A montage of each family's personal relationships - Mel and Nancy, Paul and Tony and their Tina-arranged adopted baby, Ed and Pearl, the three Schlichtings, and a very pregnant Tina - continues over the credits. Each family still have their troubles, but Mel and Nancy are happy together.

Eve tells her shrink, Ann, about kinky sex with a man. Ann learns that it's the same man, she's been seeing lately. Eve finds out and explodes. A murder follows. A psychiatrist (Sciorra) is helping a neurotic art gallery owner who has a submissive and very satisfying sexual relationship with her new lover, a domineering man with a violent streak. An airline pilot that the psychiatrist recently started dating turns out to be having an affair with the patient. When someone is murdered, the psychiatrist must decide whether the lover is a homicidal maniac or someone who loves her. Her mentor and his wife attempt to help her, but things aren't what they seem. —Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com> In New York, the psychiatrist Ann Hecker has her office in the Fifth Avenue and is treating the artist John Castillo, who has violent sexual desires, and the gallery owner Eve Abergray, who loves to make kinky sex with her lover. Her best friends are the lawyer Sarah Green and her husband Leo Green, who was a former professor and mentor of Ann and now is Ann's psychoanalyst. When Ann meets the pilot Doug McDowell, she dates him and falls in love with him. But soon she learns that Doug is the mysterious lover of Eve. When she discover Ann's affair with Doug, Eve goes haywire, breaks into Ann's office and steals several tapes of her clients. Ann tells to Sarah and Leo and they hire a lawyer to Ann. She decides to meet Eve to recover her tapes and when Ann arrives at Eve's house, she finds her client hanged and dead. Now the abusive NYPD detective Larry Morgenstern investigate the murder case and suspects of Doug and John. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Psychiatrist Ann Hecker is ending one relationship and possibly starting an important new one, while finding that some of the sexual exploits her patients relate are weighing on her. Turning to a married friend from her research days for guidance, she finds his help increasingly important when a female patient is murdered and it turns out that her new boyfriend was also seeing the dead woman. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

After selling the rights of his book to a movie production company, a writer finds himself fighting the many egos and varying views around him. Specializing in the American Revolution, Pulitzer Prize winning Dr. Michael Burgess teaches History at a college in Sayeville, NC. Beyond his research, teaching and writing, his life is preoccupied by fencing, attending to his delusional mother, Cecelia Burgess, and navigating a relationship with Literature professor Gretchen Carlsen, she resisting his request to move in together, while he can see that she probably wants to get married instead. Because of the authenticity in locations, a Hollywood movie crew descends on the town to film a version of Michael's novel, Sweet Liberty, he proud of its historical accuracy and its accessibility to readers who may not be familiar with the American Revolution. While most in town become star struck in all that the movie means, the one noticeable exception is Michael upon discovering that the script has little to nothing to do with his book, including not being historically accurate. Screenwriter Stanley Gould, known more for being a hack, accepts Michael's assistance in rewriting the script in seeing it as his transition to the A-list, and as such being the liaison to those that matter, namely Director Bo Hodges, and stars Elliott James and Faith Healy. Bo solely wants to make a movie that caters to the lowest common denominator of the movie-going public, but Stanley knows the way to Bo is through Elliott and Faith who have more clout. Michael and Stanley may have some issue with Elliott, who likes to exemplify his hyper-masculine on-screen persona in his personal life, especially as it pertains to the opposite sex despite being married. The issue with Faith is that Michael starts to fall for her, he arguably falling for her characterization, how he depicted her in his book, rather than Faith as a fully formed human being, one shaped by being a famous Hollywood actress. —Huggo

Witty character study of three couples who vacation together each season. After one divorces, feelings of betrayal and more spawn criticisms of one another, but things that unite them are stronger than those which might pull them apart. Middle-aged couples Jack and Kate Burroughs, Nick and Anne Callan, and Danny and Claudia Zimmer are best friends who do everything together. As couples, they have weathered the flood of divorces that has beset their other friends. When one of the six decides to make a change in life, the other five are forced to examine their marriages, their friendships with one another, the true meaning of love, and their own personal foibles. Over the course of one year, the movie is set against the backdrop of four vacations they take together, one in each of the four seasons, with Antonio Vivaldi's associated suite of music introducing each. By their fourth vacation together, Jack feels that they need to "clear the air." —Huggo

On a flight to Los Angeles, California, British actress Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) watches herself on the in-flight movie in the role for which she has received an Academy Award nomination. She expresses her nervousness about the upcoming Oscar ceremony to her husband, Sidney Cochran (Michael Caine), as the plane lands. Elsewhere, on a Los Angeles freeway, Dr. Willis Panama (Bill Cosby) and Dr. Chauncey Gump (Richard Pryor), physicians from Chicago, Illinois, vacationing together with their wives Bettina (Sheila Frazer) and Lola (Gloria Gifford), bicker with each other constantly as their rental car first breaks down, then collides with two other vehicles. As Diana and Sidney check into the Beverly Hills Hotel, Hannah Warren (Jane Fonda) paces her room in the hotel while waiting to meet with her ex-husband, Bill Warren (Alan Alda). When he arrives, they note that it has been nine years since they saw each other, then they leave to keep the lunch reservation he made. At the Los Angeles airport, Harry Michaels (Herbert Edelman) picks up his brother, Marvin Michaels (Walter Matthau), who has come to town to attend Harry's son's bar mitzvah. Marvin explains that he and his wife Millie (Elaine May) always fly separately, so she will arrive the next morning. Marvin notices that Harry still ogles and wants to proposition every beautiful woman he sees. Harry drops Marvin off at the Beverly Hills Hotel and they arrange to meet for dinner later. Meanwhile, Hannah and Bill reminisce over lunch and later at his beachfront home. She is an editor for Newsweek magazine in New York City and dating a writer for the Washington Post. He is a former journalist, now working as a screenwriter, and contemplating marrying his girlfriend. Then they discuss the real reason Hannah has flown to Los Angeles: their seventeen-year old daughter, Jenny (Dana Plato), unhappy living with her mother in New York, ran away to stay with her father and wants to spend the next year with him in Los Angeles. Hannah doesn't want her daughter living in southern California but she is nervous about seeing Jenny and getting her to return to New York. Back at the hotel, Diana continues fretting over the likelihood of winning the Academy Award and exchanges witty banter with Sidney. Later, she has a couple of drinks to calm her nerves as she gets dressed for the awards ceremony. As Hannah and Bill return to Hannah's hotel room, Jenny calls and informs her parents that she will abide by whatever decision they make. Hannah announces to Bill that Jenny will return to New York with her. Bill is disappointed but trusts Hannah's instincts. When Hannah expresses how afraid she is of losing Jenny, Bill remarks that he has never seen his ex-wife so vulnerable. Then Hannah says Jenny can stay with Bill in Los Angeles, but only for six months. Hannah watches Jenny drive off with Bill. At the hotel's front desk, the doctors learn there is a reservation for Willis but not for Chauncey. The hotel has no extra rooms because it is Academy Award week. The only thing available is a small single room undergoing repairs. Chauncey agrees to take it. Later, Willis tells Chauncey that he has made a dinner reservation at a Japanese restaurant and booked them a tennis court for a doubles game the next day. While the Gumps struggle to get ready in their tiny room, Chauncey complains about having to eat Japanese food. As Willis and Bettina wait for their friends in the lobby, Willis complains that Chauncey is always late. When the two couples finally gather at the hotel's front door, the doctors argue about who will drive to the restaurant, until Bettina insists she will drive. On the way to the Academy Awards, a nervous Diana begs Sidney to be nice to her and wish her luck. He reminds her how talented she is and gives her a kiss. They exit the limousine and greet the crowd outside the venue. Elsewhere, paramedics arrive at a collision in which a car is on top of the one Bettina is driving. While a policeman questions her, Chauncey insists to the officer that his legs are paralyzed from sitting down at the Japanese restaurant. After the Academy Awards ceremony, Diana observes Sidney speaking with an attractive young man. Drunk, she takes her disappointment about losing the Oscar out on her husband. At the hotel, as Harry drops his brother off after dinner, Harry teases Marvin that "the night is not over yet." Marvin goes to his room and finds that Harry has hired a hooker, Bunny, to entertain him. Later, Chauncey wakes up in the middle of the night, sick from the Japanese food. Lola calls Willis and insists he tend to Chauncey. Willis angrily acquiesces. Back in their hotel room, Diana jealously insists that Sidney was flirting with the young man that she saw him speaking with earlier. Sidney asks her why they cannot lie to each other about the nature of their relationship the same way they lie to everyone else about it. He reminds her that he has never hidden who he is... that he is homosexual. Diana asks why Sidney doesn't love her anymore. He insists he never stopped loving her. She says his kind of love doesn't do her any good, then begs him to "screw" her before immediately apologizing. She loves him but she doesn't understand why he stays with her when he could share the company of other gay men exclusively. He explains he enjoys his proximity to her minor celebrity and tells her he loves her more than any woman he's ever known. They acknowledge they have fun together, then share a kiss. She comes to bed and they make love. The next morning, Marvin wakes up to find himself in bed with Bunny. He tries to get her up and out of the room but she has passed out after drinking a bottle of tequila. Calling the front desk, Marvin learns that his wife, Millie, has just arrived and is on her way to his room. He tries to keep Millie from discovering the nude, unconscious hooker in his bed but finally reveals his indiscretion. Incensed, Millie leaves. Elsewhere at the hotel, Willis, Bettina, Chauncey and Lola play doubles tennis. Bettina accidentally smashes her racket on Willis' head, loses her balance and injures her ankle as she falls. Lola stumbles over a basket of tennis balls trying to come to Bettina's aid and Chauncey trips over the net trying to help Lola. Outside the Michaels' room, Millie hurries away as Marvin tries to explain his infidelity. At first, Millie doesn't see how she can attend the bar mitzvah knowing Harry paid for Marvin's hooker, then she decides to forgive Marvin and forget it ever happened. She also plans to spend all of his money. The Panamas and the Gumps return to the Panamas' room to care for Bettina's ankle. Lola breaks a bottle of perfume in the bathroom, then cuts her finger on one of the glass shards. While they tend to Lola, Bettina trips and falls through the room's French doors, breaking the panes of glass. Then Lola bangs her head on the door of the medicine cabinet while rinsing off her bleeding finger and passes out. Willis goes to the bathroom to soak a wet towel for her, but steps on the broken glass. Willis and Chauncey put both women on the bed then start fighting each other, damaging the room in the process. After shopping in the hotel boutique, Millie returns to the hotel room. Marvin tries to embrace her but she wants no signs of affection from him in front of the still-unconscious hooker on their bed. In the Panamas' room, Chauncey swears it has been the worst trip ever and Willis tries to force Chauncey to say it is the best time they ever had and that the Gumps will love going on vacation with the Panamas again. In front of the hotel, the taxi that the Michaels were going to take to the bar mitzvah has been given to Bunny, who is awake and fully dressed. She generously allows them to ride with her to their destination. At the airport, Hannah is surprised to see Jenny, who has come to say good-bye and thank her mother for letting her stay with Bill. In another part of the airport, the Panamas and the Gumps, who are bruised and covered in bandages, limp towards their flight. As Diana and Sidney's plane takes off, they learn that the in-flight movie is the same as on their flight to Los Angeles and Diana begs Sidney to get them off the plane.