Yale but quickly found herself to have a talent for screenwriting. Anna is not particularly overwhelmed or impressed by the L.A. lifestyle, nor by the celebrities the characters encounter or talk about throughout the series. She and Sam become fast friends at Beverly Hills High although Anna intensely dislikes Sam's other friends, Dee Young and Cammie Sheppard. En route to L.A. in the first book, Anna meets the charming Ben Birnbaum on the plane and he invites her to be his date at Jackson Sharpe's wedding. Anna is enthralled by Ben and almost loses her virginity to him but Anna quickly believes Ben is only a player after he inexplicably abandons her after she told him she wanted to take things slow. Anna is still reluctant to trust Ben, especially when she finds about his romantic past, but she eventually forgives him after he explains the misunderstandings between them. Ben and Anna are often on and off throughout the series as Anna tries to decide what she really wants from her life. Samantha 'Sam' Sharpe - Daughter of Jackson Sharpe, aka "America's Most Beloved Action Star", she is often nicknamed "Sam" or "Sammy". A witty and clever brunette, Sam has many insecurities about her size 10 figure, which is not helped by the fact that all her friends are much tinier than her. Even though Sam's friends try to assure her she is beautiful, Sam never quite really believes it until she meets Eduardo Muñoz, who loves her just as she is. Sam's home life is strained as she craves attention from her ever-absent father and clashes with Poppy Sinclair, her new stepmother who is pregnant with Jackson's baby and only four years older than her. Even though Cammie and Dee are her best friends, Sam does not completely trust them and welcomes Anna to their group because she admires Anna's sophistication, poise, and down-to-earth attitude even though Sam originally had a crush on Ben. She eventually moves on from him and often helps reconcile Ben and Anna throughout the series. She and Anna become friends after doing a short film together for a school assignment, which led to Sam encouraging Anna to pursue screenwriting. Sam is interested in becoming a filmmaker in her own right and pulls the "Jackson Sharpe's daughter" card to entice people into being her films. Towards the end of the series, Sam is on the