Jerry is dating Gennice, the understudy of stage performer Bette Midler, and a crybaby who apparently cries for foolish reasons (for instance, crying when she drops her hotdog). In a parody of the 1994 Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal, George accidentally injures Midler in a softball game and the understudy has to take over Midler’s part in the musical Rochelle Rochelle. Enraged New Yorkers turn against George, Jerry and Gennice, while Midler is nursed back to health by Kramer.
Meanwhile, Elaine brings Frank Costanza to her favorite beauty shop to translate the jokes being made at her expense by her Korean manicurists. Frank runs into an old flame but Elaine is thrown out of the shop and banned for spying. Despondent, she wanders the streets of New York, where she meets J. Peterman, and finds herself a new job. When Gennice finally takes the stage, she has a problem with the laces on her boot and, in an act reminiscent of Harding’s bootlace incident, tearfully asks that she be allowed to start over.