The 1954 version of the movie is very similar to the original. This this iteration, Norman Maine (James Mason) meets Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland) when he drunkenly barges on stage while she's performing with her band. He tells her she should consider a screen test because she could make it big in movies. They lose touch until Norman hears Esther singing in a TV commercial and tracks her down again.
Her name, like in the original, is changed to Vicki Lester and the two fall in love and marry. She stars in a musical, and it's in her Academy Awards speech for that role that Norman drunkenly stumbles in and interrupts. Again. He tries a sanitarium, but like in the first film, it doesn't really work, and Matt Libby accuses him of living off Vicki's paychecks. When Vicki inevitably tells Matt she'll give up everything to help Norman recover, Norman overhears and drowns himself in the Pacific.
In the end, Vicki goes to a charity function at the same place she met Norman in the beginning and she introduces herself the same way as in the first film. "Hello everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine."