Anisha Lakhani

Former Dalton teacher Anisha Lakhani's novel Schooled—inspired by the author's experince teaching wealthy Manhattan private school kids—was optioned this week by actress Lorraine Bracco with Ms. Lakhani signed on to write the screenplay, Ms. Lakhani told the Daily Transom today. 

"I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday, believe it or not, and bought Screenwriting for Dummies," Ms. Lakhani said. "I'm freaking out. I have never written a screenplay before!" 

The Daily Transom wondered just how Ms. Bracco became interested in Ms. Lakhani's first novel, which was published in August.    read more »

The rain didn't deter Hamptonites from making their way to Bridgehampton for the polo matches, but when they got there, the fields were muddy and the games had been canceled. Fortunately suave polo player Nacho Figueras was there to make everyone feel better, Irina Aleksander reports.

Then Ms. Aleksander muscled her way into ZoneHampton, a gym frequented by the likes of Alec Baldwin, Kelly Ripa and Matthew Broderick, and spent an hour huffing and puffing with Gregg Cook, possibly the East End's most motivating spinning instructor.

On Sunday evening, the Transom's favorite tippler George Gurley found himself at the afterparty for a premiere of a film about wine, but there was very little alcohol to be had! Also, no one seemed to even be interested in imbibing. We hope this does not portend a fall season of sobriety.

Finally, the Transom met up with the comely Anisha Lakhani, former Dalton schoolmarm with a new roman-a-clef who might find that her fancy new friends turn on her once they discover the subject of her next novel. As Ms. Lakhani says, "Wink, wink!"

"It's a story about a teacher, but it's also a story about how certain children on a certain island are getting through schools seemingly magically, but maybe not so," said the tutor-cum-novelist Anisha Lakhani the other day. Her first book, Schooled, out this week, was inspired by her experiences teaching and tutoring wealthy Manhattan schoolchildren. "I never went into teaching thinking that I was going to write a book about this. But slowly I started into the world of tutoring and I found it funny in a grotesque kind of way."

After graduating from Columbia University in 1998, Ms. Lakhani, who is 32, took a job teaching 7th grade English at Dalton.  read more »