Betty is about a film star, Betty Monday (played by Cheryl Pollak), who one day drives to Palm Desert to rent a house from a retired couple in order to find a life for herself. In so doing she fails to report for work on a $70 million Christmas movie. The reason is that she is overstressed and is going through an identity crisis; she wants to meet real people and lead a normal life. One of the taglines is “The world’s biggest movie star is missing, and nobody’s gonna find her until she finds herself.” En route to the home, she gets out of her car, leaving the engine running, and sobs. Titles mark seven parts of the film. In “Betty’s Deed,” we learn about her rental, as the rental agent, Vincent Lord (played by Udo Kier), explains some of the features of the house and says that the owners are “nice.” When Betty hysterically asks whether he is making up the “nice people” story, he admits that he has never met the couple, and she thanks him for his honesty, saying that honesty is a scarce commodity. In the “Peace and Quiet” segment, she is jarred by the ringing of telephones and insects around the pool and cannot find anything to do. Next, she has several boxes of cereal delivered by a nearby store, dumps the contents into the pool, and uses the pool strainer to remove them. She also calls her agent Crystal Ball (played by Holland Taylor), telling her that she feels empty because she lacks a “real job,” whereupon Crystal goes ballistic; indeed, we sense that Crystal is the one who bugs Betty even more than filmmaking. In “Sheila,” she interacts with Fred (played by Stephen Gregory), who arrives to handle pool maintenance, and then begs to be his assistant, offering him $2,000 per week to do so. She then accompanies him and learns about pool maintenance, but between home visits she tries to get better acquainted and is nearly fired for chattering too much. In “Cleansed,” Donnie Shank (played by Ron Perlman) rings her doorbell to sell her a topical analgesic, and soon she agrees to telemarket the product for him. Soon, Burt Becker (played by Dan O’Donahue), a grocery delivery man, arrives, and she becomes interested in delivering groceries; however, when she does so, a fan recognizes her, and she races to the car to get away before her picture is taken. Burt also agrees to teach her how to play golf. In “Duel by the Pool,” she again tries to find some way to relate to Fred, but he has no interest in films or television, so she invites him for dinner. When he says “No” because that night is poker night, she invites the poker gang over to her house and provides snack food, but Burt and Donnie come calling and join the party. Then Crystal arrives, blows her cover as a film star to all present, and tries to force her into returning to the movie set by applying a headlock as if to drag her away, whereupon the poker gang intervenes, and Crystal returns to Hollywood without Betty. In “Rabbit Down,” the poker gang leaves for Donnie’s motel, interested in telemarketing the topical pain remedy. She tries her hand at telemarketing but is unsuccessful. Fred then arrives on an emergency call to remove a dead rabbit from a pool. In the final segment, “The Artist Former Known as Sheila,” she recovers her sanity. Fred confesses that he saw her latest film, a tearjerker, to a packed audience, and tells her that she is a great actress but will never be a success in the pool maintenance business. Next, she runs into Burt and Shank, who have teamed up; Burt plans to be Shank’s assistant on the road, and Shank tells Betty that she will never be a successful telemarketer. Fred arrives and gives her back her $2,000 plus the $300 that she earned as a pool maintenance assistant as a way of saying farewell. Betty hugs him and cries that she will not see him again. But she has enjoyed interacting with real people all week, feels calm and collected, and drives back to Hollywood. Written, directed, and coproduced by Richard Murphy, Betty is the umteenth film about the stress of working in Hollywood but is refreshed by many comedic situations. MH