Paesel, Brett 1960(?)-

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Paesel, Brett 1960(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1960; married Pat Towne (an actor), 1991; children: Spence, Murphy. Education: Graduated from Indiana University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA. E-mail—brett@mommieswhodrink.net.

CAREER:

Writer and actor. Developed television shows for Comedy Central and Oxygen networks. Actor in television and theater, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Gilmore Girls, and The Real Live Brady Bunch.

WRITINGS:

Mommies Who Drink: Sex, Drugs, and Other Distant Memories of an Ordinary Mom, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, Hip Mama, and Violet.

SIDELIGHTS:

Brett Paesel is an American who grew up in Germany and the United Kingdom. She moved permanently to the United States when she finished her undergraduate studies at Indiana University. From there she lived in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, working as an actor in theatrical plays and later in television. Her move to Los Angeles gave her the opportunity to write for television shows and move her acting career onto national television. She also wrote short works for magazines, a selection of which became her first published book.

Mommies Who Drink: Sex, Drugs, and Other Distant Memories of an Ordinary Mom is a collection of these essays and short stories, some of which Paesel first published in Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, Hip Mama, and Violet. The topic of most of the essays is Paesel's own coming to terms with her age and adjusting to motherhood. Home Box Office (HBO) picked up the option to develop the book for television. Reviews, however, were mixed. Jennifer Reese, writing in Entertainment Weekly, found "some endearingly personal anecdotes" in the collection, but noted much of the material seemed "weary." Writing in Publishers Weekly, a critic concluded: "This is Seinfeld but raunchy and L.A. with a full cast of potty-mouthed moms."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Reader, September 29, 2006, Richard Knight, Jr., "The R-Rated Memoir."

Entertainment Weekly, August 11, 2006, Jennifer Reese, review of Mommies Who Drink: Sex, Drugs, and Other Distant Memories of an Ordinary Mom, p. 72.

Los Angeles Magazine, September, 2006, "The Mommy Diaries," p. 54.

Publishers Weekly, May 1, 2006, review of Mommies Who Drink, p. 49.