The Renaissance woman and her big brother Dann collaborated on the young adult novel romp Camp Creepy Time: The Adventures of Einstein P. Fleet. Brimming with ghosts, monsters, nerdy fat kids, Twinkies and a sadistic nurse, the book (already optioned for a film) is poised to become the next great young adult American phenomenon.

Full-lipped and raspy-voiced Gina wooed Jennifer Tilly in the Sapphic-themed mafia movie Bound, leaving lesbians--and straight women--with their tongues lustfully lolling out of their mouths.

But with Camp Creepy Time, Gina eschews her sex symbol status and delivers a fun-filled novel teeming with pop culture references that is sure to appeal to kids and parents alike.

"Dann was sick of me begging him to finish the book," Gina says about how her brother--seven years older than Gina--presented her with the unfinished book's first 100 pages several years ago. "I was the pesky little sister," she says.

While a book about a kids' camp in the desert that's crawling with mummies, vampires and werewolves might not seem like the type of story derived from the adage, "write what you know," Gina says that she and Dann drew on their own horrific camp experiences to finish the novel.

An accidental hero and the book's protagonist, Einstein P. Fleet is the fat kid underdog with a big brain and finely-tuned cynicism. In a tongue-in-cheek nod to Hollywood and the gossip industry, Gina and Dann made Einstein the author of a blog entitled "The Smoking Peashooter," a riff on "The Smoking Gun," which specializes in publishing celebrity mug shots.

And that's just one of many Hollywood goodies packed into the novel. Einstein's folks send their Twinkie-addicted adolescent off to Camp Creepy Time for the summer for some fresh air and new friends, but he encounters a virtual desert hell-hole. He subsists on a diet of Twinkies and salt tablets, administered liberally by the sicko camp nurse, Nurse Knockwurst--a paean to Cloris Leachman's Nurse Diesel in Mel Brooks' hilarious High Anxiety.

"The book has so many references to films," Gina says. "Nurse Knockwurst was definitely inspired by Nurse Diesel. She's in there."

As kids Gina and Dann were both sentenced to summer camp in the Mojave Desert. Unlike many camp kids who pine for camp life and friends year round, Gina and Dann weren't fans she says.

"The counselors were really horrible and the food... Oh my God the food..." Gina says about camp.

Camp Creepy Time's counselors are sadistic and abusive and the food's inedible to the point that Einstein devises a plan to smuggle in Twinkies.

Another true-life aspect of the book is Nurse Knockwurst's reliance on salt tablets as a panacea.

"We were constantly being fed salt tablets at camp due to the heat", says Gina. "People were passing out."

Another of Gina's hell camp experiences that wound up portrayed in the book is playing the Draconian game "Capture the Flag" in 100-degree heat.

"It was torturous," she says.

Gina and Dann are thrilled with the book's early success, she says. It's already been optioned for a live-action film with big names like writer Richard La Gravenese--who's screenplay credits include The Bridges of Madison County and Freedom Writers--and Steven Spielberg attached.

Kids at camp decked out in vampire and werewolf costumes isn't exactly autobiographical, but Gina says that big brother Dann is definitely the Einstein prototype, whereas she's more of the novel's cool girl Roxy. And Gina says that Einstein's Twinkie fetish derives from Dann's predilection for the cream-filled yellow cake.

"I was more of a cupcakes girl. You know, the kind with the vanilla swirl on top. And Ho Ho's," Gina says of her Hostess Cupcakes guilty pleasure.

Loaded with pop culture references and wry witticisms and a distinctly insider Hollywood feel, Camp Creepy Time's appeal is ageless.

"We had to make it somewhat sophisticated for kids and adults. I just watched Shrek with my niece and we were both laughing."

In this age of multi-media, the Camp Creepy Time website offers plenty of school and workplace diversion. Click on the site and a slinky spider webs it's way down the page to a rocked-out version of the campfire classic "Kumbaya," on which Gina utilizes a skill she perfected on the set of Bound and plays the Jew's Harp.

The site offers goodies like ghost story e-postcards and Camp Creepy Time celebrity pics. "It's kind of like X-Files for kids," Gina says. Fresh off her Ugly Betty guest spot as a Donatella Versace meets Italian Porn Star Cicciolina-like diva, Gina enlisted some cast members, including Vanessa Williams and Michael Urie for Camp Creepy Time pics.

Later this summer Gina, in her Prey for Rock and Roll mode, will release a new CD, to which lesbian music mini-mogul Linda Perry has contributed some tunes.

With her hands in so many pies, it's anybody's guess what Gina's next project will be, although Camp Creepy Time's gained enough momentum to keep her and Dann busy for some time.

Asked if she'll add another new career to her expansive resume, for instance, learning the trapeze, Gina says, "That's a good idea."

Until next time!