15 Oktober 1998
By Joal Ryan
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Never trust anyone over 30.
Especially, anyone over 30 who pretends to be 19 (sometimes 18). Such is the strange case of a now-former writer for the WB's much-hyped coming-of-age drama Felicity. According to reports today, a woman who represented herself to her bosses (and the media) as Riley Elizabeth Weston, 18-year-old screenwriting prodigy, is really Kimberlee Elizabeth Kramer, 32-year-old actress and divorcée. Kramer, whose credits include Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, legally changed her name to Weston in May 1997, court documents show according to Daily Variety. Unfortunately for the newly minted Weston, the documents also show her birth year as 1966 - not the 1979 she claimed in launching her writing career. "In a business fraught with age bias, I did what I felt I had to do to succeed," Weston said, in a statement today. She said she started lying about her age - an "accepted practice" in Hollywood - to find work as an actress. Once she segued into writing, she said, she "could not be one age in the acting world and another in the writing world." "So I chose to maintain the ruse," Weston said. The news of Weston's scam comes just weeks after she inked a six-figure TV deal with Disney - and shortly after Entertainment Weekly dubbed her one of the 100 most creative people in show biz. Well, give her this, she was creative. "In many ways, I am Felicity," Weston gushed to EW. "So I hope to portray this generation in a realistic light." Note, she didn't specify which generation. Weston acted and wrote in a Felicity episode filmed just this week. But Variety reports that she is no longer a staff writer - a departure apparently unrelated to the age thing. It's not clear how the scandal will effect Weston's $500,000 Disney deal. The studio is said to be "looking into the matter." At least one Hollywood executive sounded indignant. "I thought she was this little genius," Kristi Kaylor, who signed on to produce a Weston TV script called Holliman's Way, tells Variety. "...She conned everybody." All the hand-wringing and tongue-clucking over Weston's birthday shifting is, of course, what makes this story all the more entertaining. Imagine, youth-worshipping, facelift-getting Hollywood shocked - shocked! - that somebody lied about her age. The Los Angeles Times reports that Weston cooked up the teen scheme with her manager (also her ex-husband). |