Actress’ visit worth the wait

Red-faced and spouting apologies, a mortified Jaime Pressly burst into her book signing nearly an hour late at Border’s bookstore Wednesday evening. And her fans didn’t seem to mind a bit.

About 50 fans stuck around to see the “My Name Is Earl” star chat about her new book “It’s Not Necessarily Not the Truth” and sign copies of it at the South Coast Plaza Borders. The actress shot off several one-liners about the thick traffic her driver navigated through to get her to the event.

“I was so nervous you were going to leave,” she said, nearly breathless from rushing to get the signing.

“Let’s take a moment of silence,” she joked as a store employee adjusted her microphone. When she asked if she wanted a refreshment, Pressly quipped, “Crack with an IV would be great.”

Pressly explained how her pregnancy motivated her to write her memoir. She wanted to tell her story to leave behind a record for her son, Dezi, and as a way to inspire others to follow their dreams.

“I was raised in North Carolina, but I grew up in Costa Mesa,” she said, referring to her teen years here where she attended Costa Mesa High School for a semester before pursuing her modeling career in Japan. When she returned she finished her high school education as an independent-study pupil and later went to Orange Coast College when she was 17.

She still spends a great deal of time in Orange County because, “All my friends are down here. All my real friends.”

She also talked poignantly about Rod and Shelly Blythe, who looked after her when she was a student in Costa Mesa. She refers to them as “parents” who had as much to do with helping her grow up as her birth parents. A few years ago she moved the couple to Colorado so they could be closer to extended family while Rod battled cancer. He died Nov. 12, Pressly said.

“So I hope adults [who read the book] would understand how important it is to give a child a hand when they might be going in the wrong direction,” Pressly said, adding that if it were not for the Blythes and her parents, “You wouldn’t have waited for me because you wouldn’t have given a damn.”

City Editor PAUL ANDERSON may be reached at (714) 966-4633 or at [email protected].