Mike Skloot

Cosmo Vittelli, the proprietor of a sleazy, low-rent Hollywood cabaret, has a real affection for the women who strip in his peepshows and the staff who keep up his dingy establishment. He also has a major gambling problem that has gotten him in trouble before. When Cosmo loses big-time at an underground casino run by mobster Mort, he isn't able to pay up. Mort then offers Cosmo the chance to pay back his debt by knocking off a pesky, Mafia-protected bookie.

Claire Makes It Big, Jeremy Workman's award- winning short comedy, follows the travails of a talented overweight actress and her difficulties landing a decent movie role. A sharply written and briskly directed satire of the acting and filmmaking professions that then turns into a hilarious wish-fulfillment fantasy, it also features a lovely lead performance by Mara Hobel (whom Joan Crawford-heads may recognize as the child Christina Crawford in Mommie Dearest) and funny supporting turns from more recognizable folks like Clancy Brown, Paige Turco and Peter Bogdanovich, along with a voice cameo from the late Don LaFontaine.