If it does, then we have to count Howard Stern playing Howard Stern in Private Parts.
Merv Griffin played himself as a genial serial killer in Steve Martin’s The Man with Two Brains. Hilarious.
Also a lot of the guest stars played fictionalized versions of themselves appearing on his fictional talk-show.
I’m sorry son, but you must have me confused with someone else. My name is Roger Murdock. I’m the co-pilot.
There was Michael Jackson on “The Simpsons”, doing the voice of the fat white guy in the mental hospital who was deluded into thinking he was Michael Jackson.
And Ethel Merman in “Airplane!”, as Lt. Hurwitz, the mental patient who thought he was Ethel Merman.
Not just her–dozens of actors and directors on that show have done the same thing.
Actually, Julia Roberts plays another character (Tess) who resembles the “real” Julia Roberts and chooses to impersonate (and who is mistaken for) the famous actress.
But IIRC, “Julia Roberts” (the character) never appears in the film.
Bruce Willis, however, does count in Ocean’s 12. He also played “himself” in The Player, which also featured many other actors (including Julia Roberts) playing fictionalized versions of themselves.
Oh, and as long as we’re talking about Garry Shandling, there were plenty of actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves as guests on The Larry Sanders Show, too.
Creed Bratton, while not exactly a household name, was a member of the mid-60s band the Grass Roots, and now plays himself on the U.S. version of “the Office.”
Sort of. But Neil Patrick Harris is very adament about describing his role in Harold & Kumar as “a character very much like me, who has the same name as me, and starred in the same TV show I did as a kid, but I’m not playing myself.”
He also plays himself in Free Enterprise. I love that movie. They’re so excited to meet him, and then they gradually realize he’s insane.
Topher Grace and a few other people whose names I don’t know played themselves in Ocean’s 11.
In Hamlet 2, Elisabeth Shue plays Elisabeth Shue, except that she’s given up acting and become a nurse.
I’m gonna go with Bob Saget in Huff (Played a cocaine addicted actor on a show called “America’s Favorite Dad”) and most of the cast of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
And Molly Ringwald playing herself working as a flight attendant (or some sort of airline employee anyway) in Not Another Teen Movie.
Oh, that reminds me. Former tennis tantrum star John McEnroe played both himself and his almost doppelganger on CSI:NY in the same way. He had a prosthetic nose for the guy who looked a whole lot like John McEnroe and would pretend to be him in order to sleep with girls who were otherwise out of his league.
My favorite underappreciated comedy, The Tall Guy, was written by the one-time straight man for Rowan Atkinson’s live show. The titular character is the straight man for an obnoxious comedian named Ron Anderson, played by Rowan Atkinson.
Many of the guest stars in Extras played fictional versions of themselves.
Audie Murphy played himself in To Hell and Back, his autobiography (which probably had some fictionalized elements).
Oliver Stone played himself in the miniseries Wild Palms, where it’s mentioned that he had underestimated the size of the Kennedy assassination conspiracy.
Matt Lauer played himself in Land of the Lost.
Larry King often plays himself in movies and TV.
Tom Jones played himself in “Mars Attacks,” and pilots the plane that helps a party of people escape from the Martians.
I think Adam Sandler in Funny People qualifies, even though the character is named “George Simmons.” It’s pretty blatantly supposed to be a caricature of Sandler himself; I’m not sure how “fictionalized” it is, actually, although I would certainly hope that the real Adam Sandler is not as depressing as “George Simmons” was.
Oh, and Reggie Jackson played a fictionalized version of himself, in “The Naked Gun.” He’s the guy hypnotized into assassinating Queen Elizabeth.
He wasn’t a talk show host on “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”. That was “The Larry Sanders Show.”