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From LATiimes.com : Almost famous? She knows it well Stacey Grenrock Woods chased stardom for years, and failed. So, she turned her life into the humorous 'I, California.' By Shawn Hubler, Special to The Times
July 23, 2007 It's easy today to be almost famous. Semi-stardom is never more than a YouTube moment away.
But there was a time when almost fame involved scratching and clawing and give-give-giving. And even then — even after you, say, tap-danced your toes off and got into the same child-acting school in the Valley that Helen Hunt once attended and hustled to auditions and then dropped out of Cal State Northridge and hung out on Sunset Boulevard and waited tables and did a test centerfold shoot for Playboy that didn't appear until 20 years later, but still, there you were, shivering in a corset — what did it get you?
If you're Stacey Grenrock Woods, a pretty funny tale.
"I just wanted to be noticed," Grenrock Woods, now 38 and well past the almost-fame thing, explained on a recent weekday afternoon.
A slender, sweet-faced writer and comedic actress — she looks a little like a young Diane Keaton and was once cast as a teacher on the WB's churchy hit "7th Heaven" — she was lounging, as usual, in the Los Feliz apartment she and her husband, a musician, have rented for seven years.
She did eventually score some gigs that were noteworthy by late-'90s standards. She was the talent booker at the storied Viper Room. She was an early player on "The Daily Show," interviewing people who danced with their cats and made statues of the Blessed Virgin out of dryer lint. She had a recurring role on Fox's "Arrested Development" as Trisha Thoon, the TV newscaster. Then, four years ago, she became a contributing editor at Esquire magazine, where she is the resident sex columnist.
In other words, as with so much in L.A. (lives, freeways, lighted matches in brush-fire season), one thing sort of led to another. This month, Scribner released her comic account of her adventures, "I, California: The Occasional History of a Child Actress, Tap Dancer, Record Store Clerk, Thai Waitress, Playboy Reject, Nightclub Booker, 'Daily Show' Correspondent, Sex Columnist, Recurring Character and Whatever Else." More...
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