UNCLE FRANCO'S BIRTHDAY SUIT

Twelve years later, PAOLO is a successful advertising consultant in New York City. His boss, Mr. WALLACE, trusts him to land the lucrative account of an expanding Italian shoe company.

Inciting incident: The shoe company’s consultant is Magdalena! PAOLO heard she’d married. MAGDALENA brings Uncle FRANCO an expensive suit for his birthday. She reveals she is not married but leaves before PAOLO arrives. The FAMILY, scheming but loving, plots to bring Paolo and Magdalena together.

To do this, the FAMILY has to overcome two obstacles:

1. MARTIN, PAOLO’S junior, wants his job. WALLACE asks Paolo to take MAGDALENA to view the New York sights. But when PAOLO arrives at her hotel, MARTIN has manipulated events, so it appears MAGDALENA is MARTIN’s lover. (A scene reminiscent of that in Much Ado About Nothing.) 2. Enraged, PAOLO leaves the hotel, not noticing MAGDALENA actually sitting at the bar with his Uncle FRANCO, dressed in his new suit. 3. WALLACE is angered that PAOLO didn’t meet with MAGDALENA, ensuring the contract. 4. In an hilarious scene, UNCLE FRANCO reenacts the truth of what happened in the hotel, proving to WALLACE that MARTIN and his sister, SARAH, set PAOLO up to believe a lie.

The second obstacle involves SARAH, sister of MARTIN, a gold-digger with eyes on Paolo.

1. She claims she’s pregnant with PAOLO’S twins. 2. She appears at WALLACE’s welcoming party for MAGDALENA with a sonogram, “evidence” of her and PAOLO’S twins. 3. More hilarity when the FAMILY later visit SARAH at her favorite night club. Sonogram in hand, they claim she’s pregnant and husband-hunting. Shamed in front of her friends, SARAH denies her pregnancy. 4. More hilarity throughout this scene as UNCLE FRANCO, decked in his new birthday suit, shows the “babes” how he can dance!

Finally, PAOLO and MAGDALENA spend her last evening together on the promised carriage ride.

As MAGDALENA prepares to leave for Venice the next morning, PAOLO appears with an airline ticket and orders from WALLACE to get the contract. The two leave, clearly in love.

Meantime, UNCLE FRANCO, in his new suit, offers to teach WALLACE, a bachelor, how to attract the babes.