Charlie Berns, played by director and co-writer Billy Crystal, is a writer who is so well known for being funny that when his behavior is a little off, everyone thinks he is doing a bit. On stage with Barry Levinson, Sharon Stone, and Kevin Kline, all playing themselves as stars of a fictitious Berns-scripted movie classic celebrating an anniversary, Berns gets disoriented and forgets the names of the other people on the panel. The audience laughs appreciatively; what a cut-up! Stone good-naturedly reminds him: "I'm Meryl Streep." Another laugh. That Charlie!
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Charlie's daughter Francine (Broadway star Laura Benanti) is not amused. She thinks he must be drunk or that he does not care enough about her to respond to the invitation to her daughter's bat mitzvah. And his colleagues at a "Saturday Night Live"-style late night sketch comedy show just think it's a quirky eccentricity that he insists on a typewriter instead of a computer.