Do

of Disturb.

"Good in Bed"
captures the odyssey
of fictional heroine
Cannie Shapiro.

Below: Author
Jennifer Weiner

HOTEL BARON ETTE

27790 Novi ROAD
(ON THE PERIMETER OF THE TWELVE OAKS MALL)

PACKAGE FOR TWO INCLUDES:
mr LUXURY ROOM & CHAMPAGNE

Romance
Getaway

*MANAGER'S RECEPTION
*DINNER AT THE PRESTIGIOUS No. VI
CHOP HOUSE & LOBSTER BAR

$189 0"

mrINDOOR POOL, WHIRLPOOL & SAUNA
wr FULL AMERICAN BREAKFAST BUFFET

arAVAILABLE FRIDAY, SATURDAY OR

* includes tax and gratuity

SUNDAY EVENINGS

RESERVE YOUR ROOM TODAY
OR www.HoTE' SARONETTE.COM

800.395.9009

trist father had abandoned the family.
"He never cared to see us again,"
Weiner says. "That kind of thing really
messes you up.
"It makes you feel worthless, like you
did something to make him leave."
The angst was great for Weiner's
writing habit, however. At Princeton,
she impressed all her creative writing
professors, including the legendary
authors Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol
Oates and John McPhee.
After graduation, she snagged a less-
than-thrilling job at a newspaper in
small-town Pennsylvania, where she
slaved away, reporting on the sewage
commission or school lunch menus.
"I'd type, 'Monday: Hot Dog in
Bun, Tater Tots, Cookie,"' she recalls.
"I'd think, For this. I went to
Princeton?'"
But Weiner was ambitious. At the
crummy Pennsylvania paper, she start-
ed writing a Generation X-theme col-
umn that was syndicated on the
Knight-Ridder wire service. The col-
umn eventually caught the eye of big-
city editors. At the age of 24, Weiner
was hired as an entertainment colum-
nist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In Good in Bedd. Weiner recounts a
fictionalized version of how Minnie
Driver's publicist refused to ler her ask
the actress about her very public dump-
ing by Man Damon (in the book, the

actress is renamed "Maxi Ryder").
A more difficult task was penning
the chapter in which Cannie confronts
her wayward father. Weiner had to
rent a cottage on Cape Cod to finish
the scene: "It brought up such painful
feelings that I didn't want to have
them in my house," she says.
Her efforts paid off. Pocket Books
bought Good in Bed for $550,000 in
May 2000; the novel made the sum-
mer reading lists of People and
Entertainment Weekly; critics are corn-
paring it to Bridget Jones's Diary and
the rights have been sold in 13 coun-
tries, including Israel.
Weiner has been receiving amusing
e-mail from her German translator:
"She asked me, 'What are Tater Tots?'"
the author says with a laugh.
A Good in Bed screenplay is now in
the works, though Weiner won't be
writing it. "Trying to do the screen-
play of your novel is like trying to cir-
cumcise your own son," she explains.
"It's best not to even go there."
Weiner says her childhood insecuri-
ties continue to plague her. "It's the old
legate of having
father leave," she
-0
says. "I could get 99 great reviews and
one not-so-great review and that's the
one I stay up at night thinking about.
`But I'm getting
better," she reports.
-
"Most of the time, I think I'm pretty.
cool." 7.

PRIVATE BANQUET FACILITIES FOR ALL OCCASIONS

r

'2 OFF RA

CHICKEN
O FF BIM
FOR H 2

III

LI

SPECIALLY-TRIMMED RIBS

WITH OR WITHOUT SKIN

ALL DINNERS INCLUDE: SALAD OR COLE I I ALL DINNERS INCLUDE: SALAD OR COLE
SLAW POTATOES AND GARLIC BREAD
SLAW POTATOES AND GARLIC BREAD
1

&ffe L GOOD 7 DAYS!

Exp. 8-9-2001 JN

J

I GOOD 7 DAYS! ■ Exp. 8-9-2001

JN

Brass PointePAcd&--

(.,

24234 Orchard Lake Rd., N.E. corner of 10 Mile • 476-1377

M110• ■ •••1

Food & Spirits
Presents

LIVE IANO ENTERTAINMENT

Thurs.7:00 -11:00 • Fri. & Sat., 7:30 - Midnight
Open 7 Days a Week
4108 West Maple • Blfd Hills • 248-626-2630

11111111111111111111111101111111111rA

Special

Americmi & jApAlicse 1:377eN
All You CAM EM

0/ ENTIRE
i ° FOOD
OFF
BILL ;
Expires 813 110 I • I coupon per table

I

am. mr.

Not good with any other coupon

sr= ion am re rim

29205 Orchard Lake Road • 248-553-8880 •

a

Er. am rem ria

Fax: 248153-8708 ,

Open Hours: Mon-Thurs I I am-10 pm; Fri-Sat I I am-1 I pm; Sunday I 2 noon-I 0 pm/

7/27
2001

75