Here's a tip: If you're the kind of person, like me, who doesn't like to draw attention to himself in public (at least in person, in the flesh), don't read Jennifer Weiner's piece in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, "Winning Nanna Over," while sitting in your neighborhood Starbucks.

Excerpt:

"Jen?" she said, lowering her voice to a confidential whisper, as if there were spies from Us magazine hiding in her closet. "They're making a movie out of your book!"

Yes, I said. They mentioned that to me. Then I unveiled my secret weapon, the move guaranteed to vault me to the top of the pecking order. "Would you like to be an extra?" I asked.

Nanna demurred. "Well, I'm not much of an actress."

While I was surprised that she'd already given herself a speaking part, I didn't let on. "No, you don't have to say anything. You just have to be there. Like part of the background."

"Hmm," said Nanna. "I'll think about it."

Now you can bet that if this was one of my cousin's books being made into a movie, she wouldn't have been doing any thinking. But I told her that was fine, and the next morning she called me back and said, "I'll do it!"

At which point, I was screwed.

Plenty of laugh-out-loud bits in this one.

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