You've seen the huge ads in Times Square, heard all the hype, read the synopses and maybe even the book- the highly anticipated premiere of Lipstick Jungle finally made its debut on Thursday
We are introduced to the ladies as a news report plays on about New York's 50 most powerful women. At the top of the list is Wendy Healy (Brooke Shields), president of Parador Pictures. Nico Reilly (Kim Raver) follows closely, as editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair equivalent, Bonfire Magazine. Barely making the cut is Victory Ford (Lindsay Price), once a high profile designer who has not enjoyed much success as of late. Victory's reveal of her fall collection is applauded by her two best friends- but fails to impress critics in the industry. What's a girl to do but indulge in cupcakes? Wendy (the "nicer" one) tells her to stay in, hide out for a bit. Nico (as we can already see is dubbed the "bitchier" one) tells Victory to bounce back, and definitely lashes out on people who criticize women for being successful. Clearly Nico has a lot of bitterness and pent up anger from her past experiences.
As Pres of a huge corporation, Wendy seems a little too nice for my liking. After all, she “fired” a director and hugged him afterwards. That definitely did not help the situation since the director had no clue what happened. Somehow, I guess her style of work does get her somewhere- she ended up sealing the deal with Leo Dicaprio for her next production. Back home, we meet her husband, a scruffy British man named Shane. He’s a stay-at-home dad who feels pretty worthless next to such a successful wife. So he does try to start his own business, but it seems the business partners are only interested in meeting with his wife who can bring celebrities into the picture. He ends up missing the meeting with Wendy for his son’s private school admissions and a big blow out follows. Basically, the guy needs his man pride. He’s not the one paying the bills- he’s the one cleaning up the cat’s vomit- and that, is not okay with him.
Next up we meet Nico’s husband, Charles, a boring professor. He takes no interest in Nico’s position at Bonfire and even refers to it as that magazine. It seemed to me that Charles thought lowly of a fashion/political/cultural publication, and that Nico should be finding ways to bring peace in the
Victory’s line is on the rocks when the big guy overseeing her
The next day, he actually hand writes a note for her (oh wow!) and sends enough flowers to Victory that it would be safe to say that he probably wiped out a florist. She flies off to
Next week- more ridiculous rich people activities in store for Victory and Joe, the beginning of a sexy affair between Orlando Bloom-esque Kirby and Nico, and a tell-all book about Wendy that leaves her not impressed.
Are we looking at a potential SATC replacement here? I can definitely feel the connection between the three ladies, and Kim Raver is absolutely believable as the mean, top of the game EIC. Wendy can just stop being so nice already, and Victory needs to stop wailing and design something nice already. Thoughts?
