SNL's Kristen Wiig to Option PDXer Monica Drake's Clown Girl

Holy crap! Word is that Kristen Wiig, the hilarious and determinedly irritating Saturday Night Live mainstay, has optioned Portlander Monica Drake's rollicking girl with the rubber chicken "memoir" Clown Girl. WW actually gave locals a sneak peek at the book, which is set, in part, at a drunk n' dirty circus manor similar to Northeast Alberta's infamous Clown House, back in 2007. We published the whole first chapter of the novel (it involves dirty balloon animals) as part of a cover story on Monica Drake, who back then best known for being a member of Tom Spanbauer's lauded "Dangerous Writers" group, along with some dude named Chuck Palahniuk.

Here's the scoop from deadline.com:

Saturday Night Live cast member Kristen Wiig is using her own money to option Clown Girl, the 2007 Monica Drake novel that Wiig will adapt into a feature script. She wants to play the heroine, Nita, a clown in crisis who works street fairs as Sniffles the Clown. Nita is barely surviving in her hometown of Baloneytown, pining for a dream man who used her to finance his attendance at clown college,. As a result, she struggles to live and tries to resist the potentially lucrative prostitution trade involving clown fetishists. The dark novel was published by Hawthorne Press in 2007 and the option deal is being handled by Inkwell Management.

I'll post details from Drake as soon as we hear back from her today. "I'm totally happy. Wiig's gonna write the screen play. I'll just get to watch it," says Drake, who found out that the deal was officially approved just this morning. "Kristen Wiig will be so great, she's perfect for it. She can be really funny but she can have a sad edge and be a real person too."

Drake has her own new project to focus on too, she says she's just about finished with a new novel. She's keeping the plot to herself at this point but she did give us one hint: "It takes place in part of the Portland zoo..."