They made a strategic error with Shatner. They had Khambatta and Shatner come up together as co-stars of this movie, when he's a major American star and she's an unknown.

"I couldn't prove it, but I'm pretty sure that was the reason he was so uninspired. And if he's not inspired, why should I be? I'm trying to pump his film for him, right, so he's answering 'Yes' and 'No' like Broderick Crawford. 'So, really,' I say, I understand the effects cost several million dollars?'

"'Yeah.'

"So, Budweiser's the sponsor, right, so I say, "Tell me this (adopts gruff Bronx street accent and yells) 'ANOTHER COLD ONE, MISS KHAMBATTA? TWO MORE COLD ONES FOR MISS KHAMBATTA. HEY, BILLY, YOU WANT ANOTHER ONE HERE? SO, BILLY, TELL ME, IS THERE ANY BEER IN OUTTA SPACE?' He was awful."

Despite all the jokes, like most of his colleagues Klein takes his work most seriously. One senses the frustrations and ambitions that lie just beneath the casual demeanor. The concerns with the power structure of Hollywood. And concerns with another kind of power structure: government, politics. Though he has fairly bandoned the political humor and satire that was so much a part of his repertoire during the Watergate era, he hasn't stopped caring.

"I'm still a political person," he asserts. "I played at the White House a year ago and I got a standing ovation. I invited the President to jump onstage to see what a standing ovation looked like."

With the nation on the precipice of choosing between Carter and Reagan, who is Robert Klein, the sagacious, articulate philosopher/comic supporting?

"Carter. First of all, he invited me to the White House--I have to support him. And," he pauses, clutching some more salted cocktail nuts, "he offered me his sister."