Plum Sykes.Photo: Getty Images
So, remember that epic battle that was supposed to be waged between Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia? It was Darren Star versus Candace Bushnell; Brooke Shields versus Lucy Liu; rich, successful New York women versus…rich, successful New York women. Yeah, that’s over: Cashmere wasn’t picked up for a second season (though Liu’s now signed on for Dirty Sexy Money, so it’s not like she’s left glamorous TV Manhattan completely). But Lipstick is now facing some new competition. NBC just announced the new half-hour comedy Mogulettes, by The Comeback scribe Amy Harris and Vogue writer Plum Sykes. Yes, that Plum Sykes, of Bergdorf Blondes and The Debutante Divorcée fame. Now, we totally read both of these slim socialite books (truth be told, we got through much of the latter while getting a pedicure), so the premise (“jet-setting twentysomething women who have already become captains of industry”) doesn’t surprise us. But that doesn’t mean we’re not kind of excited. Hey, what if Gossip Girl is on hiatus?
Also, Sykes has never been shy about putting real people into her fiction before, so let the guessing games (and cameos) begin. Who, for instance, inspired “Eva, the beautiful and brilliant leader of a cosmetics empire”? Olivia Chanticaille? Aerin Lauder? See — it’s already fun. The only thing the Variety story doesn’t tell us is whether the show will be set in Manhattan. Somehow, though, this doesn’t really strike us as a Seattle-type sitcom. —Lori Fradkin
NBC developing ‘Mogulettes’ [Variety]
