The Mix-Up

CONNIE MAFFUCCI is your typical Jersey girl with big hair, heavy makeup, and tight clothes. She’s single, late 20’s, 100% Italian, but more passive, shy. She works as an executive assistant in an investment firm, along with her best friend, LOUIE CARELLO, a pudgy, aspiring actor. And, she has a secret crush on SAM MCKENNA, the good-looking, top analyst in the company. One day, everything in Connie’s life changes. On a follow-up doctor’s visit, she’s given shocking news: she’s dying of leukemia.

With her little sister GINA’s wedding only a short time away, Connie decides not to tell her high-strung Italian family of the terminal prognosis and only shares the news with Louie. With her clock ticking, she sets out to do things that she’d normally never do: like getting a professional makeover, going from Jersey girl to sophisticated businesswoman.

Meanwhile at the doctor’s office, the doctor realizes that his scatterbrained assistant has mixed-up the files of his two patients: CONNIE MAFFUCCI and CONNIE MIFFUCCI. The protagonist does not have leukemia, the elderly Connie Miffucci does. Through another mix-up by the inept assistant, young Connie does not find out that she’s healthy.

At the office, Connie musters all her courage and asks Sam out to dinner. He accepts. They go to a nice Italian restaurant where she eats like she’s going to the electric chair. Afterwards, she again gathers all her courage and asks Sam if they could go back to his place. Sam is shocked, but agrees. They have a wonderful, passionate night together, but Connie has braced herself for only one romantic night. Little does she know that Sam has now fallen in love.

The next day, Sam asks Connie to dinner, but she declines because she’s having dinner with her sister Gina, Gina’s fiancée, and his cousin, who has the hots for Connie. Sam happens to see them out at dinner, and wrongly assumes that the cousin is Connie’s boyfriend. Sam confronts her the next day at work, and Connie tries to explain the dinner situation. After squabbling back and forth, Connie says she’s going on a camping trip for the weekend, and Sam winds up inviting himself.

Connie goes home and tells Louie about the mix-up with Sam. Turns out that the camping trip was a surprise gift for Louie, but now all three of them will go together. The trio goes camping and despite the fact that Sam really doesn’t like Louie at all, they have a great time.

Once they’re back home, Connie confesses to Louie that she’s falling in love with Sam, but knows she must break it off because she thinks she’s dying. Then Connie suffers the wrath of her meddlesome family: she forgot about the final fitting for her bridesmaid gown, and her family found out that she went camping with Louie, whom they can’t stand, and another man (Sam.)

The next day, Sam coerces Connie out to dinner, but when she gets to the restaurant, she sees that it’s dinner with Sam and his parents. Then, Gina’s fiancée and cousin spot Connie having dinner and immediately run home and spill the beans to Connie’s parents.

At the office the next day, Sam shocks Connie by asking her to marry him, but since she thinks she’s dying, she says she can’t. Sam thinks the cousin is her boyfriend, but Connie says no, and that she can’t marry anyone. She runs off, and Sam is completely devastated.

Connie goes back to the Doctor for a supposed appointment and finally learns about the mix-up. But in the meantime, Louie has revealed to both Sam and Connie’s parents that she’s dying. When Connie learns of this catastrophe, she runs to tell her family and Sam that she’s fine, it was a mix-up. But upon hearing the whole story from Connie, Sam feels used by her. Connie sees how much she’s hurt him, and despite her sincere apologies, Sam doesn’t accept. Connie leaves his place, heartbroken.

The next morning at work, Connie runs into Sam and tells him that she’s going to quit her job. He says that’s a good idea. Connie is shocked at how he feels, but then Sam says because it’s not a good idea for a husband and wife to work together. For the second time, Sam asks Connie to marry him, and this time, she most definitely accepts. They live happily ever after, despite Connie’s wacky family.