In 1978, when the movie opens, Madeline is
starring in a
stage musical based on Sweet Bird of Youth, and it's typical of the movie's demeaning
approach to women that it cuts from a shot of her face on the cover of a playbill lying in a mud puddle to a closeup of her onstage in an extended production number, «Me» («I see me, I like what I see»), that includes a chorus line of hotel bellboys.