Duets (2000)

Gwyneth Paltrow          Liv--Vegas Showgirl
Maria Bello              Suzi Loomis--Waitress
Scott Speedman           Billy--Cab Driver
Andre Braugher           Reggie Kane--Ex-Con
Paul Giamatti            Todd Woods--Salesman
John Payne               Sales Guy
Mike Mitchell (III)      Kansas City Gas Station Attendant
Maya Rudolph             Omaha Karaoke Hostess
Dan Joffre               Finale Singer
Lochlyn Munro            Ronny Jackson
Carol Alexander          Beth--The Hostess
Michael Rogers (II)      Tulsa Bartender

Directed by:             Jack Gill, Bruce Paltrow
Produced by:             Katherine E. Beyda, Lee R. Mayes, Neil Canton


Karaoke ... the courage to stand up, sing and be free. The lives of six strangers from all walks of 
life with a passion for karaoke converge and are enriched when they meet for the Grand Prize Karaoke 
Contest in Omaha, Nebraska. They are: a waitress from Wheeling, West Virginia desperate to get to 
California to become a recording star, an ex-con unwilling to bend to the rules of society who sings 
with the voice of an angel, a salesman who melts down while chasing the American Dream, a seasoned 
karaoke hustler who is disconnected from everybody and everything, an innocent Vegas showgirl 
searching for family and love, and a young down-on-his-luck cab driver. Each is searching for the 
meaning of life. As they converge on the $5,000 Grand Prize Karaoke Contest, their lives intertwine, 
revealing the funny, raucous world of karaoke bars and chain hotels that link the interstates of 
Middle America.

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Duets is a road-trip comedy which revolves around the little known world of karaoke and the whimsical 
characters who inhabit it. There's the struggling singer who dreams of making it to the big time, a 
frustrated salesman who ends up on an unexpected road trip, the dysfunctional family performers which 
includes a con-artist and his long lost daughter, and an escaped convict with the voice of an angel. 
All roads lead to Omaha, site of a national karaoke competition where this motley group of singers 
and stars come together for a blow-out sing-off.

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Director Bruce Paltrow teams with his Oscar-winning daughter Gwyneth Paltrow for this road comedy 
with music. Paltrow plays Liv, a struggling professional singer whose meets her father, Ricky Dean 
(Huey Lewis), for the first time at the funeral of her mother. As it turns out, both Liv and Ricky 
supplement the income from few-and-far-between gigs by singing in karaoke contests, and soon father 
and daughter are competing on the same circuit. Meanwhile, Todd Woods (Paul Giamatti), a salesman who 
has grown disenchanted with his job, his family, and his life, picks up a hitch-hiker named 
Reggie Kane (Andre Braugher), and during a stop at a tavern, they discover they make a good duet 
team while belting out a version of "Try A Little Tenderness." And waitress Suzi Loomis (Maria Bello) 
sweet talks Billy (Scott Speedman), a cabbie, into driving her to Omaha, where the national karaoke 
finals will determine who does the best job of singing along with the records, as the lives of these 
six characters begin to intersect. Duets also features Angie Dickinson as Blair, Liv's grandmother 
who was once a showgirl in Frank Sinatra's Las Vegas floorshow; Brad Pitt was originally cast in 
Speedman's role but withdrew after he and Paltrow announced the end of their off-camera relationship.