A variant of the suicide attempt plot with an upbeat twist (but still a bit sad). This started as just a few lines in another file and starrted growing details. Not complete yet though.

This time around, it is Leona who wakes up in the hospital, and either the company can't find her for some reason, or they have found her but decided to leave her alone until she's fully recovered. Her friends have also found her, and because she doesn't have so many mental blocks in this scenario it 
doesn't take long before everyone knows the full story. They still can't find a way out though - she will only be free once the studio loses interest in her.
One day Tiffany comes visiting, and even though Leona's life at the top has  been more of a nightmare than a dream come true, she can't resist gloating. Tiffany starts telling her how silly she is, when she is distracted by something about the way Leona smiles...
After asking a doctor a couple of questions, Tiffany returns and rather curiously asks Leona to try to smile and laugh the way Dotty does. Watching 
the attempt with great interest, Tiffany starts smiling herself.

Weeks later Leona returns to the studio on her own with several friends in tow, and surprises everyone (except for those of her friends who have been informed by Tiffany) that she would like to start working again, and she wants to have a rehearsal right now with her friends and everyone involved in the project as the audience.
After some hasty preparations everyone's in the main studio waiting for Dotty to return. Which she does, with both her dots and her dottiness refreshened. She polkas across the floor, twirls and flashes them her trademark smile.
Stony silence.
She fidgets nervously (along with various members of the staff) and tries the laugh. Still no reaction.
The director starts saying something, but Tiffany cuts in: "Aw gee, Mister Director, Sir, it looks your toy is broken." She walks over to Dotty and adds: "Beyond repair, even."
"What's happened to me?" Dotty wonders.
"Simple," Tiffany replies. "To paraphrase the Beatles, you were in a car crash, and you lost your flair." She pauses, and starts to explain.
This ties in with the Winslow theory I have explained earlier, so at least Tiffany must have learned about it somehow (and it needs to be somewhere in the story leading up to this). The basic idea is that Leona must fit a particular description to a T if Dotty is going to function properly, and even the slightest change would be enough to ruin it. Now a slight change has occured. More precisely, when Leona crashed her car, a tiny sliver of glass severed a small nerve near the corner of her mouth. It has no visible  effect on her neutral expression, but when she smiles normally her smile is slightly crooked. And with Dotty's trademark smile - without which the rest of her antics won't work either - the difference is big enough to break the spell. The nerve can not be repaired, and even if it could there would still be the difference between something whole and something broken and repaired.
(Okay, so this is kind of a Deus ex Machina solution, but its got some good parts coming up, so I include it anyway...)
After a brief discussion it is decided that now Dotty has become useless to the company, the only decent thing would be to let her go and give Leona her life back. The director (who still has the final word) asks the hypno guy if he can do this, and HG replies that it should be no problem - when Dotty was "built" they put in a special self destruct mechanism.
"Don't worry," he explains, "it's not like her head is going to explode or anything. The control sequence will just make Dotty kind of curl up and erase herself, leaving Leona's mind and body intact."
The director tells him to go ahead, but HG suddenly realizes that with Dotty gone he won't have a job any more, so he insists on getting handsomely paid first.
Unfortunately the director has not got his checkbook with him (and HG wants cash anyway), and the others only have a handful of dollars between them, so it looks like they have reached an impasse when Dotty surprises everyone, maybe even herself. She opens her purse, takes out a thick bundle of money and asks: "Is this enough?"
HG stares at her. "Yeah, I guess so... But are you sure you want to pay me to wipe out yourself?"
Dotty chuckles. "I know I have a reputation for not taking anything seriously, but believe me - I'm serious now. Sorry about the laugh, it's how you made me."
She looks around and makes a sweeping gesture indicating most of the studio. "I was created here half a year ago. Created with one purpose - to be a star. Now I have lost my stardom, I have no purpose. It is time for me to... to cease, and high time to give poor Leona her freedom. Back."
She looks at the nearest camera and notices that it's active. (They were going to tape the rehearsal, and noone has said cut yet.) "Are you taping this?"
"Yes."
"Show her this when I am gone. (pause) Hi Leona, got the spots out of your fur yet?" She giggles. "Gee, I stink at sounding serious. But you know me. Believe it when I say I'm truly sorry for all the trouble I have caused you. And even though I won't be around when you see this, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
"And in case any of my old fans should ever see this... I know you don't love me like you once did, but that's show biz. I still love you all, though. Let the world know that Dorothy Winslow loved you all until the end. Tell them she went out with a smile!"
She walks over to HG, sits down in front of him, hands him the money and says: "Do it now!" adding at a barely audible whisper: "Before I change my mind..."
HG pockets the money and produces a small pendulum which he starts dangling in front of Dotty's nose. She follows it with her eyes until they start glazing over even more than the usual (for those who haven't been paying attention at all, Leona got hypnotized to activate Dotty before she entered the studio, so HG is in effect hypnotizing an already hypnotized person), and when he has her full attention he sings softly:
"Rock a bye baby
in the tree top
When the wind blows
the cradle will rock
If the bough breaks
the cradle will fall
Down comes the cradle
baby... and... all..."
He pauses, still dangling the pendulum, and adds "Say goodnight, Dorothy."
With a wan smile and a little wave,  Dotty replies: "Goodnight, Dorothy!"
She closes her eyes slowly.
She says softly in a flat voice: "Thank you for pressing the self destruct button."
She collapses in her chair, still smiling.
The others become a bit worried when the polkadotted lioness show no sign  of reviving, but HG assures them she is just sleeping. "That is," he elaborates, "Leona is sleeping. Dotty is no more."
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I can be without testing it. I have done something similar before, and seen it done with others, but obviously I have not done it with 
her before."
"So we'll just have to wait and see when she wakes up then..."
Suddenly Leona stirs slightly and mutters in her sleep. She appears to have started dreaming, and it's not her favourite dream. Those sitting close to her can barely make out the words "...darn tiger did it again..."
Tiffany smiles. "That's Leona alright!"
The director suddenly realizes the crew is working overtime, so after looking around to see if anyone has something to say that's worth saving for posterity, he just says: "Cut!"
The cameraman turns off the camera and walks out. As our viewpoint widens we see other crew members finish their work and walk away. (I like to imagine this sequence with a mood similar to the ending of "Fantasia", where the music has ended and the musicians file out of the studio) The small audience remains, watching over the peacefully sleeping lioness.
The End.

Epilog:
The last events above appear to have taken place late in the evening, now it's several hours later, about half an hour before sunrise, and the gang has assembled in the studio parking lot. Leona is back in plain clothes, stretching and bitching about back pains. How could they let her spend the night in a *** chair, she wonders.
"We tried waking you," Drezzer explains (Yes, everyone's there. ;)) "But the special effects department was closed, so we couldn't get any explosives!"
"Ha ha. Funny man. Don't quit your day job."
Somewhere in all this, someone asks how she feels up there (pointing to her head) and she replies with a shrug: "Empty..."
They walk over to the car(s?) they came in, and Leona pauses as the others start getting inside. "I think I'll walk home," she says. "I've got some cramps to work out and a lot to think about. And... I want to be alone."
"Whatever you say, Miss Dietrich (?). See you later then."
Leona shoots the joker a dirty look and steps back for the car to pull out. After watching the car(s?) disappear into the distance, she walks off in a slightly different direction.

Leona is walking slowly down a suburban street (this is the Suburban Jungle, after all) when a faint shimmer appears in the air beside her. It slowly solidifies into a slightly transparent double of her.
(Note: This is probably similar to the "ghost" scenes in Kevin and Kell; search the mailing list archives for Bill's explanation)
"I knew it," Leona says quietly. "Takes more than a lullaby to scare you off, right?" Pause. "What are you doing out there anyway? Playing outrigger?"
(She originally made the observation that she didn't fell THAT empty, but I 
replaced it with the lullaby line.)
Dotty smiles semitransparently. "I did leave you at the studio. But like Rome, I wasn't built in one day. I take time to tear down as well."
"So you're just winding down? Too bad, I could use some stabilizing influence."
"Huh?"
"As in outrigger."
"Duh."
"But seriously, how long...?"
"I hope to last until sunrise. It just occured to me that I have spent most 
of my time indoors, and only went out in broad daylight. I'd like to see just one sunrise before I go."
After a short silence Dotty continues: "By the way, did you see the tape?"
"I did. And... I guess I do."
"Do what?" 
"Forgive you. Heck, I can't be mad at you. Not now."
"Thank you. It's going to be easier now. I have made peace with you, and I get to see the sun rise..."
"Speaking of which..." Leona stops and points eastwards. They stop at a small hilltop to watch the sun rise. It is only halfway up when Dotty starts looking less solid. "I won't make it," she gasps. "I can't see..."
Leona looks at the fading shade, ponders for a moment and makes a quick decision. She reaches out, puts her arm around the shade and kind of pulls it into her.
"Better?"
"Better."
They stand together as a kind of weird double exposure, watching the sun until it lets go of the horizon. Then something barely substantial seems to  drift away from Leona, and a faint whisper is heard only by her: "Thank you..."
Leona stands there for a while, and thinks: "Okay... NOW I feel empty!"
The rest is silence.