SCHOOL OF FORTUNE
by Amanda Brown & Janice Weber
From Brown (Elle Woods, 2007) and Weber (Hot Ticket, 2000), an energetic farce skewering the lives of the rich and obnoxious.
The first 80 pages of this comic romp starring the very worst of high society is devoted to the absurdities of planning the wedding of the century. Mother-of-the-bride Thayne Walker is a day away from pulling off the multimillion-dollar fete that will make TomKat’s Italian wedding look like a cheap Vegas elopement. And Thayne is the woman for the job—the Dallas socialite has the precision (bridesmaids are required to walk down the aisle at 22 inches per second) and toughness of a five-star general. Pippa, the bride, is a bit lost in all the hoopla, but as a devoted daughter she’s happy to oblige. That is until fiancé Lance reveals he’s gay, forcing Pippa to call off the wedding at the alter—and then all Texas hell breaks loose. Beloved grandfather Anson dies on the spot and Thayne disinherits her daughter. While Pippa’s hiding out from the frenzied paparazzi, she learns from Anson’s lawyer that she is his heir (of one billion dollars), but there’s just one caveat: She has to earn a diploma. The will doesn’t specify college diploma, so she starts off on her journey of misadventure to earn a degree, tricky for a young socialite with skills limited to shopping and gossip. Driving school is a bust (although a trip to Wal-Mart for new clothes proves an enlightening experience) and matchmaking school proves equally difficult. When she enrolls in a rural clown college, she doesn’t imagine she’ll have to dance all day with Pushkin the bear (she’s happily rescued by Boy Scouts when a jealous elephant tries to kill her). Happily, Pippa may have found her niche at housekeeping school (after all, she can identify all of Waterford’s patterns at a glance). In exchange for a quick degree, she agrees to serve as majordomo to a Las Vegas socialite and in the process may bust a smuggling ring with the FBI and reconcile with her repentant mother.
Great, silly fun, guaranteed to be seen at a beach near you.