Love times 30

andreas-collage.jpg

oh love...feeling it so strongly right now, along with deep gratitude. look what Andrea Cirillo, my forever literary agent and great friend, made to celebrate LITTLE NIGHT--my 30th novel. this collage contains public book stuff and private friend stuff...book jackets, stars from my tv productions, some of the funnier quotes from my novels ("we rode six breasts abreast..."), the cats, our favorite literary lunch hangout--the The Half King, joan stein, motherhood out loud, hallmark hall of fame, lifetime, the literary guild, soundhound, good housekeeping, and so much more...and she wrote: "huge congratulations on a wild, honest, excellent, crowd-pleasing, soul-searching, mind-boggling, record-making, tender, brainy, brave & true journey to book #30!" THANK YOU ANDREA! and everyone at the Jane Rotrosen Agency (all of whom signed the card), and my publishers, and all my wonderful readers.

Opening Night

Opening night for In Mother Words! Tonight I'll go to the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, attend opening night and enjoy the celebration.  My wonderful agent, Andrea Cirillo, sent me the flowers and, yes, red panties, you see in the photo above.

My piece, My Almost Family, is about my experience as a stepmother.  The monologue went through several incarnations, and at one point it included a line spoken by the character's husband's ex-wife, a line-in-the-sand moment in which the mother phones the stepmother to ask if she's missing any panties, it seems one of the children may have stolen them.  The stepmother asks, "What do they look like?  And the mother replies, "Red with black lace, very trampy."

Ah, the pleasures of trying to merge a family.  I wound up cutting that line, even though it got laughs, because the heart of my piece is serious and more than a little sad.  The new family--the stepmother's--didn't stay together.  There were too many old wishes and ties, ways the original family had of doing things, stolen panties being the least of her problems.  Andrea knows me so well, and she knows all my writing, and the different lives this monologue has had.

So I thank Andrea and the agency for the flowers and...the red panties, black lace, very trampy...as well as loving "Break a leg!" wishes.  Tonight will be exciting.  Jane Kaczmarek will read my piece, as she did on Sunday, when I saw the play for the first time.  I loved and was so moved by the way Jane did my monologue.

My Sunday night theater party of close friends included Robert Loggia, who played Jane's father in Malcolm in the Middle, proving once again it's a very small world.  We enjoyed ourselves greatly--the production is gorgeous.  Break a leg to everyone in the show!

(I just realized the photo of the flowers and "accoutrement" is sideways, but somehow that seems just right.)  The show runs till May 1.  Everyone please come!  Bring your mothers, daughters, and sisters.  If you don't live in LA, fly out.  You'll definitely laugh and cry and adore the magical fairy-lit courtyard where you can drink wine, coffee, or a lovely sparkling water under the balmy sky.

(In group photo: Kenji Thielstrom, me, Mary Guterson, Audrey and Robert Loggia, and Julie, a friend from Shutters.)

Friends and Favorites

I feel so lucky to be surrounded with creative, amazing friends and colleagues.  I have been with my literary agent, Andrea Cirillo, since the very beginning.  We were young when first we began; my mother actually accompanied me to the agency for my first meeting.  Long time ago, many books and much fun since then.  Ron Bernstein has been my film agent forever.  Thanks to him I've had movies and a mini-series made of my work, and gotten to spend much time on film sets. This website was created by Adrian Kinloch.  I thank him for his knowledge, vision, and the beautiful photographs he took at two photo shoots--one in Chelsea, the other at Rockaway Beach.  Jessie Cantrell is a writer, actress, and comedian who moonlights as my assistant.  Mike O'Gorman is a writer, actor, and comedian, and does all our videos.  Ted O'Gorman is a writer, actor, and comedian who fills in for Jessie when she's acting, and who also takes care of my three cats when I'm on the road.  Sarah Walker, writer, actress, comedian, and author of Really, You've Done Enough, is integral to many projects.

The photo above shows me with Audrey Loggia, my friend and California sister.  I'm godmother to her dog Maggie and she to my cat Maggie.  Even though she's allergic to cats.  A great friend indeed.

Jessie Cantrell Jessie is Luanne's assistant, friend, and fellow coffee lover.  She considers herself very fortunate to have such a wise, talented, supportive, generous, gorgeous and, most importantly, fun boss.  Jessie is an actress/comedian, so when she is not at The Half King with Luanne, she is auditioning for Coke commercials, making music, and/or working on sketch comedy shows for her group The Dan Ryan.  You can check out her stuff at jessiecantrell.com.

Mike O' Gorman Mike is the director and editor of video content for LuanneRice.com. O'Gorman is also an actor and writer, and has appeared in upcoming episodes of Comedy Central's Ugly Americans, Cartoon Network's Delocated,and VH1's The Short List. When he's not working on Luanne's videos, you can find him performing with his sketch comedy group, The Dan Ryan. Mike O'Gorman lives in New York City.   Follow Mike on facebook >

Sarah Walker Sarah is a writer and comedian living in NYC. Her column "Sarah Walker Shows You How" appears on McSweeney's Internet Tendency. She also blogs for Best Week Ever (bestweekever.tv). She enjoys cake and naps. For more about Sarah, go to her website: sarahwwalker.weebly.com

Ted O'Gorman Ted is an actor and comedian in New York. He is the former head writer for Black20.com's The Middle Show with David Price. In addition to his work in videos for LuanneRice.com he performs regularly as a member of the sketch comedy group The Dan Ryan.