FAMOUS BABY

A humorous and poignant mother-daughter-grandmother story FAMOUS BABY is also filled with a delightful cast of supporting characters who help Abbie, Ruth, and Esther come to terms with their current conundrum and surprisingly tragic past.

Some people seek fame. They become actors, politicians, models, musicians, professional athletes, or comedians; knowing that once they make it to the top not only will their careers be followed, but so too will their personal lives. Then there are others who are born into fame, never having a say in the matter. Some of these people include royalty, heirs and heiresses, and the children of actors, politicians, etc. Imagine though growing up a seemingly ordinary girl, but—because your mother’s full time job is to document your every disgusting (but adorable) habits as an infant, all of your childhood anxieties, and your misadventures through puberty—you are also a famous kid. Thanks to your mother’s memoirs, her women’s rag articles, and obsessive blogging, complete strangers know the most intimate details of your life and now that there is Twitter, you are forever being watched and tracked. Nineteen-year-old Abbie Sternberg is Karen Rizzo’s FAMOUS BABY. And she’s not about to suck it up from the sidelines anymore. Moving to Tuscon, Arizona immediately after high school to escape her ambitious, overbearing mother Ruth, Abbie is drawn back home to Los Angeles upon learning that Ruth now intends to exploit Grandma Esther. Esther, whom Abbie adores, suffers from both Alzheimer’s Disease and cancer. Preparing for Esther to move in with her, Ruth had rigged the entire house with cameras and promised her readers “to share with all of you, my surrogate family, this particularly personal and intimate experience.” To spare her grandmother from becoming the next Youtube sensation, Abbie secrets her away leaving Ruth desperate and scrambling with her agent and former lover Harry, as well as her new-age ex-husband Justin, to reclaim Esther before the media, Ruth’s web sponsors and loyal readers discover she’s missing. A humorous and poignant mother-daughter-grandmother story FAMOUS BABY is also filled with a delightful cast of supporting characters who help Abbie, Ruth, and Esther come to terms with their current conundrum and surprisingly tragic past. Karen Rizzo is the author of THINGS TO BRING, SH#!T TO DO…and other inventories of anxiety, a non-fiction look at her twenty years of personal lists." Karen's essays and stories have been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Living Fit, Fit Pregnancy, Salon.com, Beatrice, Fresh Yarn, and on NPR. One of her essays received the 2004 MAGGIE Award for Best Essay in a West Coast Consumer Magazine. Her short story, "Don't I Know You?" can be found in two Random House Anthologies of women’s writing, Crème de la Femme and Life’s a Stitch. Her plays have been performed at New York’s Ensemble Studio Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and Samuel Beckett Theater, and ARCADE in Los Angeles.