Candace Bushnell gave the world Sex and the City, the global TV hit about the lives and loves of a group of sexy New York women.

Now her new set of modern girls about town are about to hit US TV screens. But Bushnell's latest Manhattanites are a bit less carefree than the famously single Carrie and her cocktail-sipping friends. Now there are husbands, high-powered jobs and children to deal with.

It is not just about juggling multiple dates and finding time for shoe shopping. It is about juggling a career and making sure the kids get on the school run.

Bushnell's novel Lipstick Jungle is being converted into a new TV series, due to hit US screens later this year.

Like Sex and the City, it is inspired by her own experiences as a woman living, working and loving in Manhattan.

Many experts believe the show could catch the zeitgeist as Sex and the City did. It will examine what it is like to be a high-flying career women who also wants to have a family.

"The idea of women juggling careers and families from positions of influence is more popular than ever before," said Ed Robertson, a pop culture critic and television historian.

The heroines of Lipstick Jungle seem set to win their way into the hearts of America as the women of Sex and the City did.

Lipstick Jungle's heroine is Wendy Healy, a glamorous and married movie executive obsessed with winning an Oscar as she tries to balance her work and home lives. She is to be played by Hollywood star Brooke Shields.

Unlike the main character in Sex and the City, Healy is no struggling writer or serial dater. She is a rich, powerful woman at the peak of her career.

Yet at the same time, she has a troubled marriage and problems with her three children. It is far removed from the trials and tribulations of Carrie, whose main balancing act was staying upright in her high heels.

"The fact that TV is going to deal with this shows how much of an issue balancing careers and family life has become for women," said Vickie Milazzo, author of the self-help career guide Inside Every Woman.

Healy's two main friends are also powerful women, in the shape of Nico O'Neilly, a successful magazine editor, and Victory Ford, a fashion designer. So far only one hour-long pilot has been filmed, but if it is a ratings hit executives at network NBC are ready to roll out a prime-time series.

Healy has trouble with her spoilt children, O'Neilly is having an affair and Ford is taking flak after a high-profile fashion show falls flat. It is a bit like imagining what Carrie and her friends might grow into as they hit their forties.

It certainly seems to reflect Bushnell's own life. She was a single party girl when she wrote Sex and the City, but is now a powerful businesswoman who married in 2002. She is an executive producer on the new show and even has a cameo role.

Though Sex and the City was a hit thanks to its easy-going sexy glamour, Lipstick Jungle's weightier issues could strike a chord in a country where women are taking an increasingly high-profile role.

Recently Nancy Pelosi a mother of five became the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives. Katie Couric a mother of two is America's first solo female network news anchor. Then there is the small matter of wife and mother Senator Hillary Clinton, bidding to become the first woman President.

"Just look at who the presidential frontrunner is at the moment. Just look at who the Speaker of the House is. The show could be on to something going on here," said Robertson.

Guardian

(China Daily 04/09/2007 page9)