Now, just because we've been all excited about the return of Gossip Girl doesn't mean we've forgotten about another important television occurrence next month: the debut of The Real Housewives of New York City. When we ran into one of the stars of the show, Bethenny Frankel, at Gotham's Black & White Ball, she was all too eager to talk to us about it. Frankel, you'll recall, was on Martha Stewart's version of The Apprentice. "We were supposed to do six episodes, and they extended it to seven, maybe eight," the pretty health-food chef told us. Seven episodes! They're really betting the farm on this one, people. "Most of [the other stars] are just women who are letting their lives be a fishbowl," Frankel explains. "But I have a brand, and I wanted to be careful about that." So before she went on the show, Frankel talked to her agents. "All my agents said, 'Reality-TV shows are a train wreck, and they want you to come off a train wreck,'" she explained, adding that she didn't listen. Frankel is confident that she can come off in the ways that she wants to. "I'm the Sex and the City character. I have a career. I have a life, but I want to have kids," she says. "I'm the Carrie Bradshaw meets Martha Stewart. I cook and speak French, but I dress fashionably when I need to and run the circuit." Oh, yes, Bethenny, you'll come off exactly the way that you are trying to. We can't wait.

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