Roberta Glass
Roberta Glass is one of the two main protagonists in the 1985 comedy film Desperately Seeking Susan.
She is portrayed by Rosanna Arquette.
Roberta Glass is a woman who lives with her husband, Gary, in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Roberta lives with her husband who runs a business selling hot tubs. She has a sister-in-law, Leslie Glass, who is mostly nosy and talks about people so much. Her life is not what it is all that it is cracked up to be being bored all the time and needing some excitement. Roberta does find something to keep herself occupied by reading the personals section of a New York City tabloid, particularly an ad from Jim with the headline “Desperately Seeking Susan”, seeking a rendezvous in Battery Park.
Roberta would later on go to New York City to watch out for Jim as he is going to meet up with Susan Thomas, his girlfriend. Roberta sees them and she would follow Susan to a vintage store where Susan gives her jacket to the clerk for resale. Roberta buys the jacket and later on goes home. Gary talks to her and wonders about the jacket.
Later on in the week, Roberta sees another ad in the tabloid for "Desperately Seeking Susan" and she goes to Battery Park and she waits for Jim and Susan. Dez, Jim's friend goes to Battery Park to check on Susan for Jim. Waiting for Susan at Battery Park and wearing her jacket, Roberta is accosted by a criminal named Wayne Nolan, mistaking her for Susan, who's after the Egyptian earrings and murdered a mobster named Bruce Meeker. Susan spots Roberta, but is arrested for not paying her cab fare. Dez arrives and rescues Roberta, who hits her head on a poll and loses her memory. Roberta's purse falls into the ocean. Also mistaking Roberta for Susan, Dez takes her to the Port Authority to collect Susan's suitcase, finding the other earring, and lets her stay at his apartment.
Roberta, believing she must be Susan, retraces Susan's steps with Nolan in pursuit. She arrives at the Magic Club – narrowly missing Susan, who has been released from jail and discovered her suitcase gone – and is hired as Crystal's replacement. After Roberta's disastrous first performance, Nolan attacks her, demanding the earrings, but he escapes as the police arrive. Roberta hits her head again, regaining her memory, but is mistaken for a prostitute and arrested.
Roberta is bailed out by Dez and she tells Dez who she really is and he is thinking that she must be making up some more stories. Searching for Roberta, her husband Gary finds his way to the vintage store and is put in touch with Susan, who believes Roberta and Dez are connected to Meeker's death and want to frame her. Susan accompanies Gary home, where they get high. Roberta calls from jail, but hangs up when Susan and Gary answer. After calling Dez to bail her out, they find his apartment ransacked by Nolan, and sleep together.
At Gary's house, Susan sees a TV report about Meeker and Nolan having stolen the earrings, once belonging to Nefertiti. She realizes the truth from Roberta's diary, and posts an ad to meet her at the Magic Club. Dez attacks an intruder in his apartment who turns out to be Jim, and confesses to his relationship with “Susan” as Roberta slips away. She reads the ad, as do Jim and Dez; they arrive at the Magic Club, along with Gary, his sister Leslie, and Larry Stillman.
During her act, Roberta recognizes Nolan, who flees backstage. Dez leaves as Roberta tries to explain the events of her disappearance to Gary, finally voicing her unhappiness and ending their marriage. Nolan threatens Susan at gunpoint, but is knocked out by Roberta.
Later, Roberta finds Dez at work in a theater projection booth. She “introduces” herself and they kiss, as Jim and Susan reunite in the theater below. A final newspaper headline reveals that Roberta and Susan returned the earrings. Both Roberta and Susan get reward money for the return of the earrings.