La La Land (2010)

Week one sees Gary making himself at home in the lavish Laurel Canyon mansion of Ruta Lee, a film star of Hollywood's golden age he once chauffeured in the UK. Despite her attempts to set him straight on the realities of the movie business, Gary believes Hollywood is his for the taking.

In week two Shirley, Brendan and Gary continue trying to get noticed by Hollywood's power players. At an industry function, Gary ignores advice from his mentor, Ruta Lee, on the most effective way to network when he shocks guests with his outrageous anecdotes. Over in Burbank, Shirley uses his psychic powers to help a private investigator solve an adultery case hoping it will bring him media exposure. In a seedy motel room, Brendan pitches an up-and-coming producer his latest idea. Inspired by the producer's positive feedback, Brendan uses his son Jack's tuition money for a one-day shoot in an effort to make his idea a reality.

After three weeks in Los Angeles, Shirley, Gary and Brendan each have an opportunity that could transform their lives. Shirley has scored an audition to host a new psychic TV show called Spirited and is determined to get the job by any means necessary. Brendan is making an eco-documentary about the release of a California Condor back into the wild. The only problem is that he has neither the rare bird nor anyone to release it. Gary is on a quest to find an agent. He meets with a husband-wife producing team who offer to make him a show-reel, but tensions flare when Gary becomes visibly aroused during a romantic scene with the wife.

Gary finally books an audition – a TV commercial for a mattress store chain – and hires an acting coach to help him prepare. He proves to be a difficult student and things go from bad to worse when he takes the coach’s advice to shadow a mattress salesman at work. Meanwhile, Shirley attempts to set up a psychic hotline to sell spiritual alarm clocks and outdoor lanterns. After hiring a staff of operators, Shirley coaches his new recruits on how to persuade callers that his products will allow them to communicate with the dead. Brendan decides to become the first right-wing Michael Moore and make a documentary celebrating the work of the Minutemen, a volunteer organization on a crusade to keep illegal immigrants out of America.

Shirley is offered his first gig – a psychic showcase at the Theatre West in Studio City. He cajoles his driver, Chico, into pretending to be his manager in order to negotiate a bigger appearance fee, but Chico’s best efforts are in vain. Brendan’s latest film is about a group of volunteers planning to build a homeless shelter in downtown LA. But things fall apart when he offers the architect a can of Mace with which to defend himself from the local homeless community. When Ruta Lee sends Gary to a fashionista for a makeover he thinks he’s a victim of the TV show Punk'd.

As six weeks in LA come to an end, Brendan focuses on the custody battle of his estranged son Jack; Shirley attempts to rid himself of the dead celebrity spirits that have controlled his life since he was a child; and Gary is set to collaborate on a short-film with a cult film director. The stakes for each of them have never been higher, but nothing goes quite according to plan. Desperate for cash to pay his attorney’s fees, Brendan takes his first paying job in LA filming an interview with 1980's TV star Alan Thicke – however it’s not long before the police are called. In Glendale, Shirley's exorcism gets out of control when the spirits of Princess Diana and Colonel Sanders refuse to leave his body. And back in central LA, Gary and the director are soon arguing about whether they should pursue Gary's plan to speculate the production budget on lottery scratch-cards. By the end of this tumultuous day, Gary, Shirley and Brendan's lives have changed forever.