- A day in the life of a group of men and women in Hollywood, in the hours leading up to a friend's birthday party.
- Arty film-within-a-film revolves around seven people with little in common whose lives collide.—Anonymous
- Gus (David Duchovny) has invited a bunch of people to a party, including Calvin / Nicholas (Blair Underwood) (actor, 36, who thinks there is no such thing as bad sex), Francesca / Catherine (Julia Roberts) (Movie star, 33, and has no idea how much money she has), Lee (Catherine Keener) (Executive, 41, believes her behavior is normal, and thinks she was invited by Gus, but is a plus 1), Carl (David Hyde Pierce) (Screenwriter, 42, afraid that his wife Lee finds him boring), Arty (Enrico Colantoni) (Playwright, 40, Mother messed him up), Lee's sister Linda (Mary McCormack) (Masseuse, 36, never been in a long term relationship) (Lee invited Linda to set her up with Gus).
Linda would love to be loved. Carl loves his wife, Lee. Lee is looking to be loved by Calvin. Calvin plays Nicholas (as African American actor) who discovers he's in love with Catherine (who poses as a journalist to interview Nicholas). Catherine, who is really Francesca, finds true love. And Gus loves himself.
Carl (David Hyde Pierce) has bad dreams that spill over into bad days. He's married to Lee (Catherine Kenner) who has lost all interest in him. He is a magazine editor whose latest piece is on porno women and the way they pick up their nicknames (middle name and the name of the street they grew up on). His boss calls him into his office and asks him the question: When you go to the refrigerator to get a bottle of beer, do you drink it right out of the bottle, or do you pour it into a glass? Carl says the latter and is fired. His boss wants only those who seize the moment and savor direct experience working for him. When he gets home, Carl is distraught to discover that his beloved dog has eaten some chocolate brownies laced with hashish. A vet arrives and they get into a heart-to-heart talk (The vet figures that the dog is going to be OK and proceeds to eat the rest of the brownies with Carl). It's the only connection with another person he's made all day.
Meanwhile, Lee leaves her husband a note explaining her dissatisfaction in the marriage and her plans to leave him. She carries this dark cloud to work where she's a Vice President of Human Resources. Her responsibility is to inform a handful of individuals (Rainn Wilson, Eddie McClintock, Dina Waters and Sandra Oh) that they've been fired. This task enables Lee to unleash some of the anger she has stored in her body (forcing them, for example, to stand on a chair while she throws an inflated world globe at them), but it's not enough. When she learns that her lover, Calvin (Blair Underwood), is leaving her, she gets boiling mad. Lee curses some movie company that is shooting on the streets and blocking traffic. At lunch with her sister, Linda (Mary McCormack), she's on edge even when receiving a gift for her fortieth birthday. Lee criticizes the gift she received from Linda the previous year and then is speechless when Linda gives her a coin purse as the gift for this year's birthday.
Meanwhile, Arty (Enrico Colantoni) is directing a play, The Sound and the Fuhrer, starring a very pushy actor (Nicky Katt) who relishes the opportunity to play Hitler. He seems to be careening out of control, ordering other actors and actresses around (telling them how to play their scenes) and even challenging Arty's focus on the stage production. The director does have his mind occupied with a trip to Tucson where he'll be meeting the woman, he's been emailing for quite a while. He feels totally relaxed with this form of connection. The Hitler actor makes the Eva Braun actress quit the play, as he insists that she should drink blood like he does. The play's opening night goes well.
Linda works at a hotel, as a staff masseuse and meets Gus (David Duchovny), a producer who is having a birthday party in the same hotel, hires her for a massage, and then offers her $500 to "release his tension." She needs the money because she is flying off the next day to see a guy she met on the Internet. She thinks he's 22, but in fact he's about 40, and is not an artist as he says, but a director whose new play features Hitler as a guy who, he tells Eva Braun, has "so many responsibilities I can't think of a relationship right now."
In a movie within the movie, Francesca (Julia Roberts) plays Catherine, a journalist who is doing an interview with Nicholas, a television actor who has some strong feelings about the role of African Americans in Hollywood. He's played by Calvin whose next scene as Nicholas is in a movie with Brad Pitt where he plays a sidekick to the star. Catherine doesn't eat airline food. When Nicholas comes back from the bathroom, he finds a love letter on his seat and thinks Catherine wrote that letter to him. Catherine doesn't mention the letter and Nicholas confronts her, to which she denies any knowledge. Nicholas, in anger, tears up the letter in front of her. Nicholas talks about how African Americans in movies are not allowed to kiss other African Americans and are probably shot if they try to kiss a white woman. They are human too and deserve love. Nicholas does his scene with Brad Pitt and he and Catherine walk off together. That's when their movie director calls cut and that's their wrap for the day. Calvin and Lee get together after the shoot and have sex in her hotel room.
In the evening shoot, Nicholas and Francesca do some additional scenes where Nicholas ends up kissing Francesca. At Gus's party, Francesca meets up with a young man who knew her years ago and was mesmerized by her presence. Their connection turns out to be a surprise to both of them.
Lee and Linda go to Gus's party together, but Gus is nowhere to be seen. The party is getting out of hand, so Linda goes back to Gus's room and finds that he has killed himself by putting a plastic bag around his head. Lee returns home to reconcile with Carl. The next day rolls around.
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