New ABC Shows: "Cashmere Mafia"

ABC's midseason series "Cashmere Mafia," set to premiere on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. following the conclusion of the next cycle of "Dancing with the Stars," is an intimate look at an ensemble of high-powered women from Darren Star, the creator of "Melrose Place" and "Sex and the City."


The drama revolves around Dylan, Juliet, Caitlin and Zoe or the Cashmere Mafia - four Manhattan women bonded by their Ivy League educations and executive success.

According to an enthusiastic ABC press officer, this one-hour drama is "a thinking woman's 'Sex and the City' mixed with the wit of 'The Devil Wears Prada'."

The women support each other through rocky marriages, rival colleagues, kids' recitals and the hunt for the perfect loft.


Consistently outpacing their male colleagues and husbands in salary and title, they also have to watch out for scheming bitches eager to bring them down. Fortunately, there's strength in numbers.

These successful executives regularly bring their problems to the lunch table and use each other's strengths and resources to avert disaster, both personally and professionally.

Can "Cashmere Mafia" bring sexy back? More importantly can it show ABC some Nielsen love? Being produced by the man who created the original "Sex and the City" series should help avoid the fate of knockoffs that failed in the past.


Then again the woman who wrote the original book "Sex and the City" was based upon, Candace Bushnell, has her own show on TV next fall - NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" and rumor has it she wasn't too thrilled her long-time friend Star went ahead and conceived a similarly themed show at the same time.

According to the New York Post's Page Six, Bushnell approached Star in 2005 to turn her Lipstick Jungle — about a trio of high-powered New York City women — into an NBC series, but the pair's respective peeps couldn't reach an agreement.

Flash-forward to Bushnell phoning Star with the news that NBC had greenlit Jungle's pilot, only to have him tell her that his 'Cashmere Mafia' — a pilot concerning four successful female executives — had a potential home at ABC.


While one source told the Post, "Candace is very hurt and upset by Darren's betrayal," another claimed, "There is no truth" to the story.

It is highly unlikely both shows will succeed, especially given the topical similarities of ABC's "Women's Murder Club" and even "Big Shots." However, with NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" held off till January, "Cashmere Mafia" may benefit from an earlier premiere date.

Starring: Lucy Liu as Mia, Bonnie Somerville as Caitlin, Frances O'Connor as Zoe, Miranda Otto as Juliet, Julian Ovenden as Eric and Peter Hermann as Davis.

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