Diksha Sundriyal
Prime Video’s ‘Sitting in Bars with Cake’ follows the story of two friends who come up with an ingenious way of striking conversations with strangers. Jane is introverted and struggles to make connections with new people. However, she is an excellent baker. So, when her best friend, Corinne, realizes that Jane’s cakes can be used to overcome her social awkwardness, she suggests something they’d never done before.
While the film starts as a fun adventure, things get tough when Corinne is diagnosed with a terminal illness. She and Jane must confront reality together, which only brings them closer. Because the film is inspired by a real story, you might wonder who Corinne is based on. Here’s everything you need to know about her. SPOILERS AHEAD
Is Corinne Based on a Real Person?
‘Sitting in Bars with Cake’ is based on the cookbook of the same name by Audrey Shulman. It contains the recipes of all the cakes Shulman baked in 2013, when she and her friend, Chrissy, went cakebarring all over LA. Corinne’s character in the movie is based on Chrissy. Some changes have been made to their background; for example, Corinne is from Phoenix, Arizona, while Chrissy was from Munster, Indiana. In the movie, Jane and Corinne were childhood best friends, but in real life, Shulman and Chrissy met in college. Apart from these minor details, the story stays on track with what happened in real life.
Shulman loves to bake, and she made a cake for Chrissy’s birthday, which they took to a bar to celebrate the day. The cake attracted a couple of people, and Shulman discovered it was a good way to break ice and talk to people. The cake’s success led Chrissy to suggest that Shulman should bake cakes and take them to bars to meet new people. After ruminating on the idea for about a year, they decided to do it properly in 2013, where the target was to bake 50 cakes in the year.
The same year, Chrissy had a seizure, and it turned out that she had brain cancer. In the film, Jane becomes Chrissy’s primary caregiver. The same happened in real life when Shulman took care of Chrissy because her parents were in Indiana, taking care of their other daughter, who was also recovering from an illness. All the things that happened following Corinne’s diagnosis in the film happened pretty much the same way in real life as well.
How Did Chrissy Die?
Chrissy Osmulski died on March 5, 2015, after her two-year-long battle with brain cancer. She was 33 years old and was laid to rest at Elmwood Cemetery in Hammond. In the movie, Corinne is shown to be an only child, but in real life, Chrissy has a brother, Bill, and a sister, Katie. She also had a dog named George, who was at her bedside till her last breath.
Chrissy graduated from Pickerington High School in Ohio in 1999 and received her bachelor’s in music Magna Cum Laude at Xavier University in Cincinnati in 2003. In 2005, she received her master’s in Music Composition from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She worked as the West Coast Director of Admissions for Bennington College in Vermont.
Chrissy is described by Shulman as “a human sparkler, a flash of color and light.” She was optimistic, hardworking, encouraging, and supportive of her friends and loved ones. While she was described as quiet and shy, she “had enough creativity and energy and love for all of Los Angeles.” Shulman called Chrissy “unfailingly supportive” of her ventures. “[Chrissy would bring] me library books she thought I’d enjoy, encouraging me to network, championing the blog. Back in college, she’d write me good luck notes before I had work being performed, or if something didn’t work out with a boy, she’d write encouraging notes on Post-its and put them in my mailbox,” Shulman said. She called her and Chrissy’s four years living together in LA as fulfilling and a “happy coexistence,” in which she didn’t need anyone else as long as she had Chrissy.
Read More: Is Jane Based on a Real Person? Where is Audrey Shulman Now?
