Lipstick Jungle (3.12.08)

I have a soft spot for this show, which is slowly getting better and better... one of the creative minds behind it told me a lot about it when it was in the first stages of production, and I eagerly awaited it's arrival. I am happy to say I have enjoyed getting to know the characters and like the tone the show is following for the most part.

http://www.nbc.com/Lipstick_Jungle/video/episodes.shtml#vid=226450

This week, I am about 98% certain that Victory's billionaire boyfriend Joe is secretly funding her new 'Investor'. It occurred to me while I watched her ask her investor guy if she could sign a two year lease in a pricey store... and he said make it happen, without asking any other questions.

Also, Nico kinda back stabbed Wendy by spilling to her boss that they might be able to acquire the secret unpublished prequel to Harry Potter (which Wendy told her in secret) and Nico told in order to outshine her co-worker who keeps trampling all over her. While she was talking, http://www.bonfiremagazine.com/ flashed across the bottom of the screen... woah! it's an actual magazine! Someone is taking the time to write articles and do a layout- how cool! (They should hire me!!!) It's also an ad for NBC, but it's ok....

Joe takes Victory to an art exhibit and she starts asking him questions about her investor, wondering aloud who would just throw 'money like that around' completely oblivious to the fact that Joe is contemplating a $20,000,000 purchase- she even meets his 'rival' who says he'll buy the art, not Joe (the guy is bitter cuz Joe used to date his wife or something).... Victory is clueless- I am even more sure that Joe is the real shadow investor... anyway, she is talking about how hard it is to run the business from her house and he suggests she 'stay at his place' which she interprets as moving in...

Nico and Wendy fly on a private jet to Scotland to meet with J.K. Rowling regarding the unpublished prequel, and Nico is completely distracted- mostly because she knows that Kirby will be meeting her in her hotel room, and Wendy at first wasn't going on the trip but gets on the place last minute... to Nico's dismay.

Joe's assistant shows Victory around the house... he really went all out to move her in- he even gave her a completely new closet complete with the new clothes!!!)
However, he also gave her her own bedroom... cue the disappointed face.

Wendy is sitting in the hotel bar and KIRBY wanders in to order a drink... but they have never met before and don't know each other! They are both waiting for NICO! When she walks in the look on Wendy's face...

Wendy is outright rude to Kirby while he is just trying to be nice to her. I get it that she is upset that Nico is cheating, but she is a little bit too upset- making it personal somehow, like it reflects on her and her own marriage.
She and Nico get into it and fight and end up saying hurtful things...

Meanwhile, Victory is suspicious (FINALLY) of her magical investor and starts asking him to approve outrageous things, like funding a sheep farm so they can produce their own wool...
But later at the auction with Joe, she blurts out (while he is bidding $30,000,000 on a painting against his rival) that it must be his RIVAL who is funding her company!

Joe is kinda distracted by the bidding, but says that's impossible and of course she asks why and he tells her because he bought her company- and then he wins the painting for $50,000,000 and she gets and up and leaves angry. (Why? I'd be flattered by the show of faith! What is wrong with this girl?)

Back at the house she yells at him because she doesn't want the man she loves owning her. She is pissed, but he tries to explain to her and he actually believes in her company, wanted to protect her, likes taking small companies and making them big. She is so angry, and ungrateful- it's annoying me. She tells him they are done, and as a parting shot says 'Enjoy your fifty million dollar painting; like that's an insult somehow?

Wendy is seriously disturbed- she keeps putting of sex with her husband... and she doesn't really tell him why she and Nico are fighting, but kind of lets him know. I think Nico got it right- Wendy is mad because the romance and passion that Nico is feeling isn't in Wendy's marriage anymore and she just can't admit it. What she shot back at Nico about how she was glad Nico wasn't a mother because she'd be lousy at it was a lot worse though.

They run into each other on the street the next day, and kind of truce but not really.

Next week is the season finale- look out!!! The preview shows something bad happening to Nico's husband while she is with Kirby...

Lipstick Jungle (#105)

I am getting into this show- although I TOTALLY confuse it wilt Cashmere Mafia all the time...

http://www.nbc.com/Lipstick_Jungle/video/episodes.shtml

So, on the way home from a night out with everyone, Victory sees her dresses hanging in the window of another store- she doesn't know yet that her ex-assistant stole some of her designs. Billionaire boyfriend Joe tries to get her to look into the 15 employees she fired when she had to downsize, but she rips him a new one insisting that none of them could have done this to her. She calls Reis, her ex-assistant and when she shows up the next day crying, she realizes that Reis took her sketches to impress a possible job opportunity- she didn't mean to get them produced. Reis claims she didn't even get the job- and Victory smiles with her and sympathizes- and then the moment she is out the door says she is a little liar (How did she know?)


Shane (Brooke's husband on the show) gets up onstage and plays jazz with his old band- and after the show she gets all hot and bothered and they hook up... she tells him he should play more often, and he points out how he can't fit it in between all the kid stuff he has to do... so she submits a demo of his stuff as music for a movie but under a fake name, without telling him what she's doing. he shows up in her office pissed because he got a callback from the producer- he didn't know she submitted it under a different name and thought he got the job because of her... so it would have turned out fine if Wendy had kept her big mouth shut, but she spills that it is her husband's music before he officially gets the job, and then he gets the job... most likely because of her...

At 8:50 into the show, a great song comes on (I'm not gonna write you a love song..) as Nico dictates notes about how her affair with Kirby will go...
(I would like to remind you- she is actually very pregnant in these scenes and is very good at hiding her belly in most but not all of the shots)
The next day (after dealing with Victory's meltdown) Nico asks Wendy if she can get Kirby (yes the guy who tried to sue her but is now her secret secret lover) a job.

Nico shows up at the set of a photoshoot Kirby is working at and starts getting jealous when she sees the hot blond starlet flirting with him while he photographs her... cue the drums Dum Dum Dum! That night she asks him about it and he mentions that the girl wrote her cell number down for him- and (even I am) surprise- Nico is mad that he DIDN'T call her because it means he is forming emotional attachments to Nico- Huh?

To get Ricardo to admit that Reis sold him her designs, Victory cooks up a scheme and invites them both to an event Nico is throwing... and she wears the red dress from his window under her coat. As Reis bounces up to her, she takes off the coat, and Reis stumbles a bit but then Victory tells her the two of them should mingle... and then they end up in a huge confrontation outside and Reis rips Victory's dress and Joe runs to break it up and Ricardo starts to see what is going on so Reis blurts out that the three dresses were really Victory's and Ricardo says , "No the label says Bragini- they are mine" and Joe steps in and says that Ricardo known they could have only come from Victory and Ricardo backs down (whew). Joe and Victory leave, and then Nico passes by Reis and says "You're melting, melting" (alluding to the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz).

Nico looks up and sees the starlet from the photo shoot enter- with Kirby as her date. Sasha walks over and 'introduces' Kirby and Nico says she hopes they have fun tonight, and he meanly *but with a smile- says they will.
Later alone at home, she decides to go see Kirby- fully expecting that he'll have Sasha there with him- but he is alone. He tells her he only went to make her happy, that he only wants her. Then they get naked...

As she reads the scandalous headlines about her night, a knock at the door is Victory's new investor- his girlfriend loved the dress she made for the movie star and he wants to back her financially so she can mass produce!

Lipstick Jungle

Last week was a little hectic, so I watched the last episode of Lipstick Jungle and didn't write about it- but I will make up for it now...

quick recap- Nico is being sued by Kirby (the assistant she had a brief steamy affair with) for sexual harassment, Victory fought with her billionaire boyfriend because he (shocker) didn't want to hang out with her friends....that's about it for important details

Notice about 2.31 seconds in to the episode, Nico is hiding her stomach behind a pillow- and in the last episode (even with the sex scene) they never showed her stomach either- that's because -obviously- during filming Kim Raver was gigantically pregnant... just thought you'd like to know.

Anyway, Nico tells her friends about the affair, and now the suit, and they are all shocked! It's a little bit fake-ish that Brooke Shields (can't remember her character's name) goes home right after and has spontaneous random sex with her husband in the laundry room- they even turn on the dryer! In real life, it would never work that way, plus you know she only did it to prove there is still 'something there' between her and him, to reaffirm she's not like Nico....

Victory goes home and immediately makes nice with her billionaire boyfriend- but first asks him why he's never been married- and he responds (kind of quickly) that he's a business man, he never wanted to get into a deal that wouldn't work out for him, and she is okay with that and they get busy...

Fast forward to Nico's boss and the head of legal tell her not to worry, she'll sign a statement and Kirby will basically be ruined. She hesitates over signing it but then decides to when she realizes if she doesn't get it over and done with, her marriage may collapse. It also helps that Brooke tells her to do it- although I would not take my legal advice from her myself...but has everyone forgotten that Nico took naked pics with Kirby? Obviously he didn't take the settlement cuz he can JUST SELL THE PHOTOS!

Stupid Nico- after her co-worker Mike spills that he knows about the alleged affair, she goes to see Kirby at his job at a bar. Stupid Nico.

Victory gets the chance to dress the star of one of Brooke Shield's upcoming movies, and works like crazy to get a fabulous outfit done for the premier. Side note, I love her new assistant- he is awesome and funny.

Best line ever:
"Can I mix gin with vodka? Not after Labor Day!"

So, Victory designs the dress, Brooke critiques it to death and at the premiere, the star is drunk and crazy cuz her boyfriend just dumper her and when she sees him with a new date, she tries to run him over with the limo...

So, at the premiere, Nico finds out that Kirby dropped all charges, which works out for her cuz she is starting ti suspect that her husband is cheating on her with a student (actually, she was hi student once upon a time too, so it's not so far fetched) and she meets up with Kirby after the event...stupid Nico.

Victory gets the promo stuff she needed when the starlet gets released from jail wearing her dress, and the premier ends up being very popular due to all the drama, so all's well that ends well.

Lipstick Jungle (episode 2 and 3)

I reiterate, this show is good, the outfits are funny in a 'we're not trying to copy a past hit but come on it's Patricia Field baby!' way, and the writing has been decent thus far.

It's too early to tell, but since I haven't stopped watching yet, I say it's a go. I will say this though, I don't find it exciting enough to write a blow by blow description... I'm holding out that it will get a little bit better. I have noticed that they name drop though- last episode was Leonardo DiCaprio, this episode was 'Ben Affleck did Pearl Harbor for a case of steaks' (Really?).

Yay! Janice (Wendy's nemesis) is played by Lorraine Bracco (formerly of The Sopranos). No idea who cast her, but it was a good move- this character is great for her!

Kim Raver is playing Nico who is married to a guy who hasn't slept with her in a long time, so she has an affair with a much younger guy, who turns out to be her photographers assistant.

I waited all episode for this- finally something truly funny- Victory Ford is looking for inspiration for her new line and sees a street vendor selling a hat she made in design school to a tranny... Victory asks if she can buy it, tranny says no, Victory follows her to her house, tranny threatens pepper spray, Victory retreats but returns another day with coffee and pastries- and sees said hat walk out the door on the head of an old lady on her way to the synagogue! The funniest part is when Victory asks the old woman if she can buy her hat and the woman's friend says (totally authentic) "What are you, some kind of animal? She can't be in the house of god with her head uncovered!" To which Victory responds, "Can we go outside?"

Very cute.

Ok, besides the part where Wendy's ex-nanny has written a tell-all book about how she sucks at being a mother, I just noticed that her office has a gold door. Yes, a GOLD door. I want a job that gives me an 8 foot gold door. I would totally walk in and look at myself in it all day... I kid, but hello, how randomly quirky and cool?

I used to like Kim Raver on the show with the fire department or whatever it was- although she totally changed her face since then, and while I think she looks gorgeous now, I wonder what prompted all the plastic surgery (and who is her surgeon?!?)

Awww, Joe gets the hat from the old lady for Victory... awwww

I have a crush on this show- how cute!

Third Episode:
I think Nico's husband might be secretly gay- why else would he be avoiding her physically? She gets busy with Kirby the assistant at a photo shoot and avoids getting caught, but her co-worker who is gunning for her job might have caught a whiff that something is going on between the two of them...

Victory hires a new assistant who comes from designer royalty- but she hires him when she gets a call from Joe's assistant asking to speak to Victory before Joe gets on the phone, and the almost new assistant says he will put Victory on the line as soon as Joe gets on... he's hired!

Victory bugs Joe to come to dinner so her friends can meet him, and he promises he will but she has to meet his friends first, in Paris, that night... when they get there, he takes her to Coco Chanel's apartment (yes, that Coco, that Chanel) and Victory is all inspired...then Joe reveals he has no friends...but he brought her there to be romantic. Awww

Flip to Wendy having a day from hell- she brings her daughter to a luncheon and Janice is there, and her daughter pushes all of Wendy's buttons and Wendy snaps at her, which if course Janice notices... Wendy had bought her daughter Maddie a pair of really expensive shoes and while Nico is introducing Wendy to speak, Maddie realizes her mo only brought her to show what a good mother she is- so she takes off the shoes, slams them onto the table and walks out... Janice confronts her in the bathroom and when she leaves a gorgeous fur coat outside the stall, Wendy takes Janice's bright red lipstick and writes 'bitch' across the back!!! Priceless!

So, Joe and Victory show up at Nico's place and Joe immediately makes friends with Nico in a very cute way, then the doorbell rings and he says "Ahh, that must be my assistant, I asked her to bring over my dinner" and when they all look at him, he assures them it is a joke. It is actually Kirby, who came to see Nico, who called his boss and accidentally got him fired (so she screwed him, then she screwed him)....
unfortunately, even though it all went well, in the car after dinner Victory alludes to more get together's and Joe asks why he needs to see them again now that he's met her friends and she goes off on him a little, which sucks because it was a really romantic night till that point...

But the next day his assistant shows up at Victory's house with a gift from Joe- the mannequin from Coco Chanel's apartment.... awwwww... except Victory makes them wrap it back up and take it back.... (Boo).

Pause. Halt. Hold the phone!!!

Brooke Shields (whom I have loved since I was very very young and didn't even know her name) is trying to convince the mom and agent of one of the young actresses she gets movie roles for that the role the mom is vying for her daughter is not good for her that it 'can lead to trouble when a young child is forced into a role they may not be comfortable with' Blue Lagoon anyone? (look it up if you have no idea what I am talking about).

Nico goes after Janice to protect Wendy by hiring away her assistant and she confronts Janice and threatens to print all the stories her pilfered assistant is telling Nico!

Great episode- I won't spoil the ending, but I will say, way to go!

Lipstick Jungle (Pilot)

I know, it premiered a few weeks ago, but I've been caught up watching the last 3 seasons of Lost and have severely neglected everything else on TV.

So, the first 4:14 minutes of the show are cute, fun and informative... we learn all the girls names, their ranking on the '50 Most Powerful Women' list... and that the fashion world can be a cruel place... so far, I like it. Kind of like my guilty secret, this show reminds me of sitting in a dark kitchen at 2am scooping the cookie dough out of the ice cream.

I like the way this show is turning out- good story lines, pretty actresses- new faces for some of the guys (I hate when the same good looking hunks play the same guys on all the shows, we get it, they're hot, but they can't act, that's why they never get any better roles than that!) Anway, so far so good- I think it's funny that Victory's date has his assistant call her, sends a car to bring her to him, and then when he meets her he is on his phone so asks her to wait a minute... so typical.

While it obviously is a Sex and the City themed show, I feel like it is a little more mature and not just about who is sleeping with whom and what they wore before they got into bed! It is so cute that Victory paid for dinner with the millionaire- and the next day he sent her a note that said "If someone else pays my dinner the least I can do is leave a tip" and hundreds of bouquets of flowers get delivered into her house...

Also, the guy who played Terrence on Big Shots (he was killed) is Brooke Shields husband Shane on the show... wasn't I just saying I hate re-casting pretty faces? Oh well.

I'll watch the other two episodes at some point and write it all up.

Cashmere Mafia 2.6.08

How exciting- Lipstick Jungle is FINALLY on TV- I have been waiting forever!

Cashmere Mafia is its direct competition, so before I watch it for the first time, here is last week's episode...

Soooo Mia has an intense brain surgeon boyfriend, Zoe forgot her 10th wedding anniversary is coming up but she promises to clear her schedule for it and is also going to meet her 'work husband' (a co-worker she has never met in person but emailed and video conferenced with forever) for the first time. Caitlin finds out her lesbian girlfriend is pregnant and Juliette has to deal with her rebellious daughter getting suspended and her husband draining all their money and being separated from him.

Holy hell- why is Mia wearing a mandarin orange as an outfit? Accesorized with grapes and apricots for earrings? BLECH! I thought she was fashion forward- yuck!

So, Caitlin meets up with Sam (the guy from the bridal shower) for dinner and they see Aleasha (her girlfriend) so they sneak out the back... and she has an awful hangover the next day and Aleasha confronts her and she admits that she slept with Sam...

And then Mia cheats on her new boy neoru surgeon with Zoe's MANNY! I get it, he's cute... but young... and then Zoe catches them... awkward

Juliette brings the girls along to hire an attorney to represent her in her divorce- and finds out her husband already hired him!

This show is like a bag of caramel corns- sweet and yummy for the first few bites, but then even when it'sjust too much sugar, you can'tstop- have to keep eating them!

Cashmere Mafia 1.6.08

I am excited about this show! It is a direct competitor for another show I am psyched about- Lipstick Jungle (yes, based on the book with the same name) and I think given the lack of programing these days, both shows will do really well if they start airing them now!

Mia (Lucy Liu) gets engaged in the first three seconds of the show to Jack, her co-worker and boyfriend played by Tom Everett Scott, who is also now in direct competition with her for a promotion. They are in advertising and whichever sells the most gets to be publisher, the other gets fired!

Frances O'Connor plays Zoe an overworked mom and executive who debuts talking on her cell phone hiding in the closet from the kids before she goes to the office.

Miranda Ott0 is Juliet- a shark of a COO of a big company (we last saw her in 'The Starter Wife' with Debra Messing over the summer)

Bonnie Sommerville plays Caitlin, and she just got dumped by her boyfriend. I think she does PR or something- she has a client come into her office and there is definitely a lesbian-ish moment when their eye's meet... hmmm

In true chic-lit fashion, after we see a bit about each woman, they all meet for lunch and discuss Mia's engagement and now dog-fight promotion issue (it's all very reminiscent of Sex and the City). They immediately agree to throw Mia an engagement party and we cut to a fancy party out in Manhattan with the three friends toasting Mia and Jack. Jack gets warned by the other guys that the girls all stick together, he can never come between that.

(side bar- Zoe's assistant mentions drinks at The Spotted Pig- don't go- it's a dump, cheap-ish drinks but unless you work near there and can't get a cab, go somewhere else! I hope the next name they drop is actually a decent place- like Johnny Fox's on 81st and 2nd!)

Let the bloodbath begin- Jack calls one of Mia's clients and sets a date to take him out, so Mia sets another date to impress the client even more, with the help of Juliet who tells her where to take the client to blow his socks off. Juliet leaves a message for her husband telling him she'll meet him in Miami on his business trip- but the next scene is her husband flat on his back in bed with the woman who approached the girls during their lunch (Stella Grey- the 'great' divorcee as they called her).

Unfortunately for cheating husband, Zoe sees him kissing Lady Divorcee outside the Gansevoort Hotel (another name drop people) as her car passes him on her way to the office! (So obviously the business trip he told Juliet he was going on is a lie and she will be flying down to meet him- only he is up in NY). Zoe meets Mia and Caitlin for drinks to tell them and ask if she should tell Juliet. They agree they'll all three tell her at her house tomorrow before the benefit they are all attending.

Woot! At 24:09 minutes in, Caitlin leaves the bar where she had drinks with her client- and they share a lesbian kiss on the sidewalk- so now we know it's mutual!

So, the three meet up at Juliet's apartment (all wearing black, accidentally, but hey it's NY) and then they tell Juliet and she takes it VERY well- not really reacting at all actually. They follow her into the kitchen, and then she lets them know she knew he cheated- not this particular time, but in general. They talk, drink, laugh- all is fine.

Cut to the four of them walking up a red carpet for the benefit (staged by the way outside the 59th Street bridge in front of the Gristede's! How funny is that? They blurred out the name, but it's still the supermarket under the bridge!)

As revenge, as she is sitting at the table with her husband, she tells hims she knows about his affair, and that he should look around the room at all of their friends, then she says he won't know when or who, but she is going to take one of them as a lover, do thing with them that would curl his toes, and then leave them- and then they can start over with a clean slate. Then her name is called to go up and make a speech. Drama!

Zoe is at the dinner, but she also has to go to her daughter's dance recital, and when she is late getting there, the woman at the door tells her she has to wait until intermission- you see her suddenly on the side of the stage, trying to edge to her seat- just as she sits down, her husband tells her he got the job (one that would require him to travel a lot- and since their nanny just quit it will be even more hectic than usual).

Mia gets the publishing job. Jack shows up at her office with champagne and says he is fine with it. He says he can't do it, and that he thought he'd win- now that it's reversed he can't handle it. And then he leaves...

The four girls are having lunch discussing Mia's job and Jack leaving her because of it, and Caitlin is about to tell them she kissed another woman- but Stella Grey walks in with her broker (she got turned down for a co-op she was looking at, how suspicious...) and then she is told there is no table for her- because Juliet and Co. AKA the Cashmere Mafia are sitting at her usual table.

All in all a good pilot episode! I hope it catches on and does really well.