By Debbie McGoldrick

CeciliaAhern’s career continues to go from strength to strength. The best-selling novelist daughter of Irish PM Bertie Ahern has just inked a deal with ABC to develop a new half-hour series, titled Sam I Am, about a woman who wakes up from a coma with amnesia, and eventually discovers that she wasn’t the nicest person in her old life.

Sam has some powerful backing, with Hollywood heavyweights Brillstein Grey Entertainment and Touchstone TV (Desperate Housewives, Just Shoot Me) signing on as producers. According to reports in the Hollywood trade papers, Cecelia, 25, conceived the idea with Ugly Betty writer Don Todd; he will share an executive producer credit with a Brillstein exec, and she will be down as producer.

No word on casting or when the show will air, but if ABC likes what it sees and orders up some shows, it will likely debut this fall.

Cecelia is quite the entrepreneur. The author of four best-selling novels, with one of them, PS, I Love You currently being filmed as a major movie release starring Hilary Swank, she has certainly stepped out of her father’s shadow and is a major player in her own right – not to mention a multi-millionaire, given the extraordinary success of her books. More power to her!