Ointment Transcript 4/18/07

"The Ointment" Episode #281: "Riley Weston"

STEVE: It's Wednesday, April 18, 2007 and you are watching "The Ointment." Today is the anniversary of the great earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. I'm Steve Tatham and I've got my earthquake kit all packed.

TITLE: Think Globally Act Cosmetically
STEVE: Our top story: The American Rivers group has named the most-endangered rivers in America. Coming in at number one is the Santa Fe River. A close second is Joan Rivers.

TITLE: Special Guest
STEVE: Wednesdays here on the show we invite a special guest into the studio. Today we're lucky enough to have on Riley Weston. She is an actress and also a writer. You might remember about seven years ago all the publicity surrounding her work on the TV series "Felicity." She was a 19 year-old wunderkind. Then it turned out she really wasn't. Remind us, Riley, what was the big deal?

RILEY: Well, you know, it's a funny circumstance when you think about all that is going on right now in Hollywood. People who have, you know, lost lingerie, underpants, those things, undergarments. Um, and people who have suddenly spewed vile things from their mouth for absolutely no reason, whatsoever. And it, it, it's not really funny in the sense that what I went through, which is, you know, I think that it's been a really hard and long eight years just since I lied about my age. When you think about the thing that we're all doing which is entertaining people. And when you kinda break it all down and you think about it being the entertainment business, it really shouldn't have mattered. And, had I known I could've just said I needed to go to rehab for a few weeks and been all better and I wouldn't have gone through, I think, a lot of the, um, the junk that I have gone through. You know, we all go through things for a reason and we just kinda find them out as we go along.

STEVE: Riley, you were on "Felicity" as a writer and also as an actor, right? And you got a lot of attention cause you were this nineteen year-old wonder.

RILEY: Exactly. And I didn't do, I think, really any press for the first six months knowing that I knew I was lying about my age. I wasn't a complete moron going through that. I also knew that, as an actor first, I didn't want that to go away once the writing stopped. And I was an accidental writer. I mean, I literally started writing and then one day someone found a script and it became like this unbelievable snowball effect where I got a lot of noteriety from the writing. Knowing full-well I wasn't going to give up the acting and to really not trust, basically, anybody in Hollywood, I lied about my age, thinking the writing would go nowhere, so who cared, right? Who would care what age I am as a writer?

STEVE: At the time you were passing yourself off as nineteen you were really a lot older than that, right?

RILEY: I was thirty-two. Woopsie-dasisy. You know, look, I, I mean the fact is that if, I think anybody should be more empowered to do something like that if you look a certain age. This was me as an actress just wanting to get in the door. It wasn't about me, the writer, getting a job. Or, even as an actor getting a job. It was me, as an actress, just getting the audition. And that meant if I to say I had blue eyes, not brown, then that's exactly what I would have said. So...

STEVE: So, now you have a new project. A novel, right?

RILEY: I have a new project that I'm so excited about. It's called "Before I Go." It's actually a book and a script. And the script was written before the book which is kind of backwards for Hollywood standards which is how I've always survived... thankfully. And, um, I went on a ten-week book tour all through the Fall and Winter of 2006 which was truly incredible. I'm still doing bits and pieces here and there throughout different states and going to different schools and speaking and...

STEVE: Can you tell us a little bit about it?

RILEY: The synopsis is basically... if you can compare it to two different, really strong projects, it'd be like "Terms of Endearment" meets "The Notebook" where it deals with a seventeen year-old ice skater on her way to the Olympics. And her mom is her coach. And they have that just non-stop love/hate relationship. And, um, she has one true best friend named Jack, who goes through life's entire journey with her.

STEVE: The character is seventeen?

RILEY: She's seventeen.

STEVE: And going to be played by?

RILEY: Me.

STEVE: Hopefully you.

RILEY: Yes, me. That's the way I intended it to be. It's uh... I've gotten a few offers so far. I've said no to every one of them because it would not have come out the way it did if I didn't write it for myself. So, we'll see what happens.

STEVE: Well, good luck.

RILEY: Thank you so much. It was great meeting you.

STEVE: Thanks a lot for coming in today, Riley. Riley Weston, ladies and gentlemen. That's Riley Weston. You can find her new book on Amazon.com.

TITLE: Makin' It - Zen Style
STEVE: And finally... in entertainment news. Richard Gere caused quite a stir in India when in' he appeared on stage with Indian star Shilpa Shetty and he gave her a big smooch. She said she didn't mind the kiss so much. What really bothered her was the gerbil.

That's "The Ointment" for another day. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Steve Tatham and that's news. We'll catch you tomorrow, everybody.

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