Book excerpt:
Random House
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Curtis Setonfield, the New York Times bestselling author of “American Wife,” “Eligible” and “Rodham,” returns. “Romantic Comedy” (Random House, out April 4), about a single comedy writer who swears off finding love on his late-night TV series, until a good-looking pop star steps in to host the show. don’t come
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“Romantic Comedy” by Curtis Setonfield (Hardcover)
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When I reached for my phone one morning and discovered that Danny Horst and Annabelle Lilly were dating, I was furious.
I wasn’t angry because I was in love with Danny Horst or, for that matter, with Annabelle Lilly. Nor was I angry because two other people in the world had found romantic happiness while I remained mostly single. And I wasn’t angry that I hadn’t heard directly from Danny, even though we shared an office. The reason I was angry was that Annabelle Lilly was a beautiful, talented, world-famous movie star, and Danny was a schlub. He wasn’t a bad guy, and he was also talented. But, for Christ’s sake, he was a TV writer, a comedian—he was the male version of that. I. He was pasty-skinned and sleep-deprived and sarcastic. And, maybe because he was male or maybe because he was a decade younger than me, he was less self-consciously a people-pleaser and more carefree.
But his dirty and disturbing ways, apparently, had not deterred Annabelle Lily’s interest. She was his guest host. Night owls Three weeks ago, to coincide with the release of his latest film, the fourth film in an action franchise in which he played a corrupt FBI agent. She delivered the opening monologue wearing a one-shoulder black satin cocktail dress with a thigh slit, highlighting her slim yet curvy body; Her long red hair was styled into old Hollywood waves. Annabelle was beautiful and sweet and charming, and if she didn’t have perfect comic timing, she was totally game, which was all that mattered.
I could have forgiven them both except that they were the third such pairing that happened at the time. TNO Over the years, and as anyone who has ever written a joke knows—or heard a fairy tale, or read an article in the style section of a newspaper—there is a rule of three. In this case, it set the trend for romance between a real celebrity and one. TNO The crew that met on the show. But, importantly, a real one A woman Celebrity and one Men Staff A year ago, I attended a wedding where Imogen Wagner, an icy blonde Oscar-winning British actress, married a cast member named Josh Beckman, best known for his recurring role as Bikini Guy. Is.
And the year before that, the head writer, Elliott Markowitz (five-foot-eight, forty, and my Top Cider-wearing boss), married multi-platinum album-selling pop singer Nicola Dornan (five-foot-one). -ten, thirty, and Special Envoys to the United Nations). And this, of course, was the essence of my anger: that such couples would never exist with transsexuals, that a handsome male celebrity would never fall in love with an ordinary, mean, stupid woman. Never. No matter how clever she is.
But I also knew that flashing on my phone screen as I lay in bed—Danny and Annabelle had debuted as a couple the night before, in a make-out at the club where Annabelle The twenty-fourth birthday celebration was held. – that I would write about my anger. As I always did, I would turn my emotions into humor, and thus I would heal myself.
Excerpt from “Romantic Comedy” by Curtis Setonfield, Copyright © 2023 by Curtis Setonfield. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint of Random House Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this extract may be reproduced or republished without the written permission of the publisher.
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“Romantic Comedy” by Curtis Setonfield (Hardcover)
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