Ali Wentworth: People in DC actually read books

Ali Wentworth returned to her hometown of Washington on Monday for a signing to celebrate the release of her new novel, “Ali in Wonderland: And Other Tall Tales,” in her typical, wisecracking fashion, joking that D.C. “is one of the few cities where you do read books.”

She then quipped that she thought of how to make her book fly off the shelves in L.A.: “I need to write a Pilates DVD to go with it.”

{mosads}The comedienne and actress, 47, whose mom served as former first lady Nancy Reagan’s social secretary while her dad worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, says it took her about nine months to compile stories from her inside-the-Beltway upbringing: “I wanted to write a humor book, and in comedy, you write what you know. And so I sort of wrote my funny stories from my childhood up to the present day — a lot were cut.”

While splashing her signature on books at the Elle magazine-sponsored launch party at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown, Wentworth revealed she wrote the book just as her family was being uprooted from the District to New York.

Her husband, ABC News chief political correspondent George Stephanopoulos, was named the anchor of “Good Morning America” in late 2009. The “In Living Color” alum says between tackling her first tome and schlepping her belongings to NYC, there was “a lot of craziness.”

The energetic entertainer says election years generally mean she doesn’t get to see her spouse very often. Stephanopoulos is also pulling double duty as the Sunday morning host of “This Week.” Although she’s sure to see him every night for dinner, Wentworth says of her political-junkie husband, “The election year gets him so juiced and excited that it’s actually fun to watch.”

Another fun thing to watch is Wentworth in action, working the room with her barbs. She says her favorite quote in the book comes from her mom, Muffie. After Wentworth’s ex-fiance ran off with another woman to the Bahamas, she says her mother deadpanned, “‘Nobody goes to the Bahamas in July.’ I wanted to name the book that.”